7613th Security Council Meeting: Situation in Cyprus

Security Council adopts resolution 2263 (2016), extending mandate of United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus at 7613th Meeting.

• Categories: Meetings & Events / Security Council
• Video Length: 00:12:50
• Production Date: 28 January 2016
• Asset Language: Arabic; Chinese; English; French; Russian; Spanish
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING FORCE IN CYPRUS - UNFICYP
• Subject Topical: PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS
• Geographic Subject: CYPRUS
• MAMS Id: 1554680
• Parent Id: 1554217

Description

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for six months, until 31 July, and decided to increase its force levels to 888, while welcoming progress in negotiations between the island nation’s Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders on a comprehensive and durable settlement.

Unanimously adopting resolution 2263 (2016), the 15-nation Council also urged the implementation of confidence-building measures, saying it looked forward to agreement on and implementation of further steps, including military confidence-building measures and the opening of already-agreed crossing points.

On missing persons, the Council called upon all parties to provide more expeditious, full access to all areas, given the need to intensify the work of the Committee on Missing Persons.

Speaking after the action, Egypt’s representative expressed concern about preambular paragraph 13, regarding that Committee’s work, noting that language indicating the identity of military areas should have been included to reflect the reality on the ground.

In a similar vein, the Russian Federation’s representative said the resolution’s sponsor had not heeded the concerns of some Council members, pointing out that the Turkish air force continued to violate Cypriot airspace.

However, the representative of the United Kingdom, the resolution’s penholder, said the text achieved a “fine balance” and sent a positive message at a hopeful time, explaining that it welcomed the progress made between the two sides, captured positive developments, including confidence-building measures, and approved a modest increase of force for the mission.

The representative of the United States said his delegation saw the best chance in decades to end the long-standing division and reunify Cyprus as a bizonal, bicommunal federation. Unfortunately, one Council member had politicized today’s action, he added.

The meeting began at 10:05 a.m. and ended at 10:21 a.m.