Filenews 10 December 2024
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is making a historic visit to Cyprus today.
The prime minister landed at Larnaca airport and not at the British bases, which is the first time in an official visit by a British prime minister.
The British Prime Minister arrived at 8.40 in the morning at the Presidential Palace, where he was welcomed by the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, while a military contingent paid tributes.
The National Anthems of Cyprus – the United Kingdom were played and then the Prime Minister laid a wreath at the statue of Ethnarch Makarios III.
This was followed by a private meeting between the two leaders.
Welcoming Prime Minister Starmer, the President of the Republic said: "This is a historic visit, 53 years after the last visit by a UK Prime Minister for a bilateral meeting.
Also, our meeting takes place two months after our meeting at the Prime Minister's Office and this is a clear proof of our strong will to work together, to strengthen our bilateral relations in defense, security, investment, trade, education, technology, at all levels.
You are visiting Cyprus at a time when we have great developments in our region. We will exchange views and see how we can work together to create conditions of stability and security.
Of course we will discuss EU-UK relations, in view of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2026, and of course the Cyprus problem.
The United Kingdom is a guarantor country, draftsman of resolutions in the UN Security Council and has a special role to play for the resumption of talks and the resolution of the Cyprus problem, on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions. We have a number of very important issues to discuss and I look forward to our discussions."
Prime Minister Starmer said: "It is a real privilege to be here, and after our meeting in October in London we managed to have this historic meeting. Please take this as proof of my intention that the really strong relationship, the cooperation of our countries – strong historically and because of the ties that the two peoples have had for many years and our common interests – can reach even stronger levels, whether it is on international issues that we face together or on trade. investment, energy, health, the EU, many issues that our countries are already working closely together.
I have the opportunity to be here in your beautiful country and have these discussions. It is a historic visit because a UK Prime Minister has not been here for a very long time for talks, so I feel privileged to have these talks with you and to take them to another level. I look forward to renewing and strengthening relations between our countries."
Subsequently, the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom attended extended consultations with their delegations, before the British Prime Minister departed from the Presidential Palace, concluding his working visit to Cyprus.
The one-day working visit of the British Prime Minister, which is part of his tour of the region, is a milestone in the close bilateral relations between the two countries, since it is the first visit of a British Prime Minister on a bilateral level to Cyprus since 1971 when the then Prime Minister Edward Heath visited our country, while John Major's visit in 1993 was part of a meeting of the Commonwealth countries.
The meeting comes less than two months after President Christodoulides and Starmer met in London.
