Foreign leaders head to Cyprus
US, German, UK, Russian foreign chiefs to hold separate talks on reunification
The foreign ministers of the U.S., Germany, Britain and Russia are to visit the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus next month as talks for reunification gain momentum.
Negotiations between the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Greek Cypriot administration were resumed in May following the election of Mustafa Akinci as the TRNC president.
In a statement, his government said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is to visit on Nov. 14, followed by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier three days later.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond will arrive after Steinmeier. Britain, the former colonial power, is one of the guarantors, along with Greece and Turkey, that is committed to finding a solution to the divided island.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrives later and is expected to discuss the reunification negotiations.
The Mediterranean island was divided into a Turkish Cypriot administration in the northern third and a Greek Cypriot one in the south after a 1974 attempted coup was foiled by Turkish intervention.
Akinci has said that he wanted to see a federal structure of two zones.
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus declared its independence in 1983.
