US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday that Washington is involved in the Cyprus talks, after a meeting he had in the American capital with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in which they discussed a range of bilateral and regional issues.
The two officials spoke of progress on the Cyprus talks.
“But we have also some good news from the Eastern part of Mediterranean – I mean Cyprus. We are hoping to reach a settlement in Cyprus in 2016. Turkish side is ready. Due to the elections in south it has been slightly slowed down, but after the elections we are hoping to reach a settlement. And United States is giving its full support to this process as well as Turkey” Cavusoglu said after the meeting.
Secretary Kerry agreed with Cavusoglu, noting that “we are deeply committed to and involved in the talks on Cyprus. I’ve been to Cyprus personally, Vice President Biden has been. We have met with the folks on both sides as well as individual countries, and we’re going to keep pushing very, very hard towards a resolution in the Cyprus crisis; gone on for too long”.
White House Spokesman John Kirby said that “the ministers welcomed progress towards a Cyprus settlement”.
In addition, Secretary Kerry underscored the importance we place on the maintenance of strong democratic institutions in Turkey, including free media and judicial due process.
Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu discussed US-Turkish cooperation on security and counter terrorism with National Security Advisor to US President, Susan Rice.
“They discussed the best ways to work together to degrade and destruct ISIL. Mrs Rice reaffirmed the US commitment to Turkey to jointly tackle terrorism and once again condemned the recent terrorist attacks of ISIL against our NATO ally. Mrs Rice also condemned PKK attacks against Turkish targets and emphasized that such attacks must stop” a spokesperson of the White House said.