Christodoulides says Pakistan ‘broke silent process’ over Unficyp mandate renewal
Pakistan “has broken the silent process” of the United Nations security council’s renewal of the mandate of its peacekeeping force in Cyprus (Unficyp), President Nikos Christodoulides said on Thursday.
“What I have been informed of this morning is that Pakistan has broken the silent process in which the resolution was put, has advanced some comments, and it is a process. It has happened in the past, and consultations continue,” he told journalists after being asked about rumours of a “lack of consensus” among security council members.
Asked if Pakistan’s comments are “favourable” for the Greek Cypriot side, he said, “you understand from the country I mentioned that the comments are not positive for us”.
Pakistan is a non-permanent member of the security council and has in recent years flirted with the prospect of recognising the north as an independent country, with the country’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif having declared his country’s “support for the people of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” during a visit to Ankara last April.
He also said last year that Pakistan “fully supports the cause of northern Cyprus” when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Islamabad earlier last year
“Turkey has always stood by the just cause of the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, and you have always maintained your stance loud and clear, and similarly, Pakistan fully supports the cause of northern Cyprus and fully stands by Turkey on this cause in an unwavering fashion,” he said.
Erdogan thanked Sharif for his comment, saying, “Pakistan’s support for the just cause of the Turkish Cypriots is extremely meaningful to us.”
Previously, Turkish Cypriot leader of the day Ersin Tatar had met Sharif’s predecessor Anwaar ul Haq Kakar in Uzbekistan in 2023, saying at the time that “around ten thousand citizens of the brotherly nation of Pakistan live in the TRNC,” and adding that he wanted “to increase close relations and cooperation” with the country.
He also said that the Turkish Cypriots and Pakistan have “historical ties of culture and brotherhood” with one another.
Pakistan, alongside Bangladesh, initially recognised the north when it declared independence in 1983, but both countries withdrew their recognition just three days after the declaration after the passage of the United Nations Security Council’s resolution 541.
Resolution 541 declared the north’s independence to be “legally invalid”, while also reaffirming resolution 367, passed in 1975, which called upon all UN member states to “respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and non-alignment of the Republic of Cyprus.”
Pakistan was also one of the UN Security Council’s ten non-permanent members in 1983 and voted against resolution 541 but withdrew its recognition after it passed. Jordan abstained from voting, while the other 13 members all voted in favour.
The UN security council had initially been expected to vote on whether to renew Unficyp’s mandate for another year on Thursday, though this vote has now been postponed until Friday. Unficyp has a rolling one-year mandate which was most recently extended on January 31 last year