The Office of the President has reacted to Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades’ attempts to show an informal lunch to be given by the UN Secretary General on Monday, September 27 as a formal meeting.

A statement issued by the TRNC Presidency said that the Greek Cypriot leader was attempting to reflect the informal meeting as a formal one.

“We want to stress that this is a useless effort aimed at distorting the facts” the statement said, adding that it was made clear that official negotiations will not start before the Turkish Cypriot side’s sovereign equality and equal international status is accepted and the necessary common ground is reached.

“We call on the Greek Cypriot side to refrain from such manipulative and misleading actions,” the statement concluded.