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THE UN
SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN APPOINTED FORMER AUSTRALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER DOWNER AS
HIS NEW SPECIAL ADVISOR TO CYPRUS
The UN Secretary General
Ban Ki Moon has appointed the former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer as his new special advisor to Cyprus, an assistant UN spokesman has
announced.
UN Assistant spokesman
Ferhan Hak said that the newly appointed Special Envoy would start his duty
today (4th of July).
Downer who served as
Foreign Minister of Australia from March 1996 to December 2007, is the
longest serving Foreign Minister in Australian history.
One of Downer's earliest
initiatives as the head of Australia’s foreign affairs was to work with
New Zealand to broker a peace agreement in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea,
which ended a long running civil conflict.
Meanwhile, the UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has met with the Leader of the Greek Cypriot
Administration Dimitris Christofias in Paris.
Mr Ban will also meet
with TRNC President Mehmet Ali Talat in Berlin on 15th of July.
Following separate
meetings with the UN Secretary-General, the two leaders in Cyprus will come
together again on the 25th of July.
There are expectations
that a time table will be set up for the start of substantial negotiations
during their meeting. |
