CYPRUS: Biden visits Anastasiades in hospital

US Vice President Joe Biden visited President Nicos Anastasiades in hospital on Wednesday, the Cypriot leader’s first meeting ever since he underwent a mitral valve corrective surgery at New York’s Mt Sinai hospital last week.

Anastasiades said that the meeting was not simply a courtesy call, but “a visit of interest, about which I will be able to say more when I return home and brief the political leaders,” he told a small gathering of Cypriot diaspora leaders and media.
He added that he has also invited Prof. David Adams, who led the surgical team together with Greek American Dr Yiorgos Dangas, to visit Cyprus, “to enhance the efforts in Cyprus as well as the wider region so that others too can benefit from the treatment I had.”
The President thank the multitude of people and leaders for their wishes and prayers “and that I will be back home before Christmas to start work to achieve better days in 2015 and beyond.”
Biden had already previously called First Lady Andri Anastasiades who has been by the President’s side throughout his hospitalization to inquire about the progress in the operation and recover.
Anastasiades also received a message from Secretary of State John Kerry, saying “My thoughts and prayers are with you as you recuperate from surgery. You have demonstrated your strength and courage through difficult moments in the past, and I am confident this time will be no exception. Hopefully you will be back in Cyprus soon and in time to spend the holidays with your loved ones.”
The President announced that he also expects a visit from United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon next week, as well as U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland “with whom I hope to discuss a host of ideas as regards the handling of the Cyprus problem and the security of hydrocarbons in the Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone.”
Anastasiades is expected to be discharged from hospital on Monday and will return to his hotel for further recuperation before heading back home.