Bryant: Britain has a key role for a solution in Cyprus

Britain has a key role to play in ensuring that there is a just and lasting solution in Cyprus, former UK Minister for Europe and Labour MP Chris Bryant has said.

Bryant who was talking on the fringe of the Labour Conference on Sunday, in Manchester, expressed his hope that the UN will put renewed vigour and bring a lasting solution to the Cyprus problem.

UN-led negotiations have been ongoing since 2008 between Cyprus President and the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community in an effort to find a comprehensive solution to the de facto partition of the island since the 1974 Turkish invasion.

“It is a disgrace that we have a divided city on a divided island”, Bryant said referring to Nicosia, the last divided capital in Europe, adding that the strange territory of the buffer zone is a reminder “of how we have failed as politicians”.

He went on to wish that the political will power is there across the EU and beyond, for Russia as well as of course, for Turkey, to try and make sure that there is a proper resolution.

Bryant also spoke highly of David Miliband as a Foreign Secretary, saying that he brought the Labour policy on Cyprus to a much more sensible position that it had been previously, noting his pride of the work he did.

“Ed Miliband wants to bring about exactly the same solution in Cyprus as David”, he concluded.