Presidential Commissioner discusses multilateral synergies, diaspora and missing persons in visit to London CNA - Thanasis Gavos - UK/London 18/02/2022

A range of issues under his portfolio have been discussed by the Presidential Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and Overseas Cypriots Photis Photiou during his ongoing visit to London.
 
Following his participation on Thursday in the launch of a new online platform for those overseas who want to learn Greek, called “staellinika” (“in Greek”), Photiou held a bilateral meeting with Greece’s Foreign Minister for Diaspora Greeks Andreas Katsaniotis.
 
They examined ways of further coordinating actions by the two countries’ populous diasporas in the UK so as to better promote issues of national interest in the British decision-making centres. Speaking to the Cyprus News Agency, the Presidential Commissioner noted that such coordination aims to include the diasporas of countries with close links to Cyprus and Greece, such the Israeli, Armenian and Egyptian communities.
 
In the same respect, he announced that the next trilateral ‘Nostos’ meeting, along with Greece’s and Egypt’s diaspora ministers, will be held in France in early May. The ‘Nostos’ programme aims to enhance the collaboration of the three countries’ diasporas in various countries on a wide range of issues. Such previous meetings have successfully been held in London and Melbourne.
 
Photiou also told the CNA that Thessaloniki in Greece will host a trilateral summit including Armenia in July. A photographic exhibition will be organised as a side event, with images from the 1974 Turkish invasion in Cyprus as well as the genocides of Pontic Greeks and of the Armenians.
 
The Presidential Commissioner had also had the opportunity to meet with the Deputy Special Envoy of the UK Prime Minister for Freedom of Religion and Belief (FoRB), former MP David Burrowes, a long-standing friend of Cyprus. They discussed issues relating to humanitarian rights in Cyprus, as well as the country’s participation in the forthcoming ministerial summit on FoRB that the UK Government will host (in July).
 
In a meeting with His Eminence the Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain Nikitas, Photiou discussed the “entirely humanitarian issue” of the missing persons in Cyprus.
 
His weekend schedule in London includes a speech in an event about the Greek Language World Day, and meetings with the National Federation of Cypriots in the UK the NEPOMAK UK youth organisation.
 
CNA/TG/GV/2022
ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY