Speaking to the Cyprus Turkish News Agency (TAK) President Mehmet Ali Talat pointing out that he believed the Cyprus issue would be settled and that he would sign an agreement during his 5 year term in office, said the changes in foreign policy had actually begun to be seen, the fruits of the struggle being waged to end the isolations would also soon bear fruit and the Turkish Cypriot people would begin to witness more flexible and worldly policies vis-a-vis the Greek Cypriot side's intransigent stance.

Explaining that in the forthcoming days they would be working on trying to identify new policies and would be intensifying their efforts on this issue, President Talat said he had recently met with the UN Secretary General's representative in Cyprus and requested the Secretary General Kofi Annan to send a high ranking official to the island in order to determine how the Cyprus issue should progress from now on and to be more active on the issue of the Greek Cypriot side's requested changes to the Annan Plan for resuming the negotiations.

Adding that during the meeting he had also conveyed to the UN official that the Turkish Cypriot side was ready to have contacts with the Greek Cypriot side in order to overcome the daily and practical problems, President Talat said; "Our new stance and policies will be determined according to the response we receive on these issues ".

The TRNC was represented at the High Ranking Officials Meeting in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on 30 April which took place in preparation of the Organization of Islamic Conference's (OIC) 32^nd Foreign Ministers Meeting.

At the meeting, the TRNC was represented by the TRNC Ministry for Foreign Affairs' Director for Political Affairs and the Public Information Office, Ahmet Erdengiz, the Adviser for Arab and Islamic Affairs, Ahmet Yonluer, and Second Secretary, Ali Tuncay.

During the High Ranking Officials Meeting a draft resolution entitled "The Situation in Cyprus" as well as the OIC Secretary General's political affairs report including Cyprus will be taken up. The meeting is being attended by 56 member countries and other countries with an observer status including the TRNC.

Germany's monthly tourism magazine, "Turistik Aktuel", which has a circulation of 1 million issues, and the "Aquanut" magazine, which has the highest circulation of 1.5 million in Germany, in their April issue gave extensive coverage to the TRNC.