Vietnam’s Deputy Representative to the UN Security Council, Ambassador Bui The Giang, made the remark at a consultation on the process between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders for the political leadership held in New York on May 22.

“We commend their efforts to meet almost every week and move on to addressing economic issues while continuing to address complicated yet key issues related to security, governance, power-sharing and property as well as European Union matters,” Giang said, adding that the progress has helped establish an atmosphere of trust and goodwill essential to the attainment of a lasting solution to the Cyprus question.

He called on both sides to accelerate their implementation of all the 23 confidence-building measures identified by bicommunal technical committees.

“As the two leaders are entering the next phase of talks which covers areas of significant divergence, we call upon both sides to continue to show their flexibility, commitment and move the process forward in the spirit of compromise in order to reach a comprehensive settlement based on a bicommunal, bizonal federation with political equality as set out in relevant Security Council resolutions,” Ambassador Giang said.

He went on to urge for the removal of restrictions of the movement of the UN Peacekeeping force in Cyrus so as to enable UNFICYP to fulfill its mandate, facilitate the daily life of Cypriots across the entire island and encourage inter-communal economic, social, cultural and similar ties.