Returning UK High Commissioner Matthew Kidd met with President Nicos Anastasiades today, June 30th, saying that there are a number of concerns about how the Brexit will affect Cyprus-UK relations.

After the UK leaves European Union membership, there could be changes made in expatriates’ residency and work permit requirements. Head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker said that the UK would be treated as a third country after it quits its membership. However, until the UK triggers Article 50, the only thing that has changed is the good relationship between the UK and the EU, which were damaged by UK MEP Nigel Farage’s constant verbal attacks and the propagandist Leave campaign.

Kidd said he will be working to make sure that bilateral ties between Cyprus and the UK are not weakened.

The UK and Cyprus worked closely together within the EU, he comments: “Any two countries, which find that they vote together on 90% of the business of the European Union can be confident that they are to a high degree like-minded, and not just on the EU’s agenda.”

Building on that like-mindedness to the benefit of both countries, will be a central goal of his second mission here, he adds.

“I hope that we can take forward our engagement in the fields of economic growth and prosperity; our collaboration in many aspects of security and defence; our shared Commonwealth membership; and our shared efforts to extend the huge range of personal links tying Cypriots to Britain and British people to Cyprus,” said Kidd.

The president said: “We are at the beginning of a long process, whose aim should be the smoothest possible exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union. The result of this process will define the evolution of the relations of the United Kingdom with the EU.

The excellent bilateral relations and close ties that exist between the Republic of Cyprus and the United Kingdom were in place before the accession of the two countries to the EU and will continue to bind us.

The Republic of Cyprus will work to further enhance and deepen its relations with the United Kingdom, so that the interests of the two countries and their peoples are fully ensured on the basis of the new conditions created.”

Cyprus problem quid pro quo

In addition to promising to cooperate with the UK as it exits the EU, Anastasiades made it a point to ask the UK to use its influence with Turkey to contribute to the solution of the Cyprus problem.

“We count on the strong support of the international community and of our close friends, such as the UK. This support encompasses conveying the message to Turkey, an occupying force in Cyprus, that it needs to grasp the opportunity offered by the current juncture in the negotiations, acknowledge its own historic responsibility and contribute concretely to the process, not via rhetoric assurances, but through the adoption of concrete steps, which will positively underpin the climate of hope prevailing in the island,” he said.

History

Cyprus and the UK share a long and often controversial history. As an ex-colony that fought and won a war of independence against Great Britain, the island had a short-lived period of relative peace from 1960 to 1974, when British ally Turkey invaded the island. The invasion was triggered by inter-communal fighting in the aftermath of a coup organised by the Greek dictatorship of the era, but Turkish troops never left Cyprus and have segregated the population into Greek-and-Turkish Cypriots ever since.

Britain has military bases on the island in Dekhelia, Akrotiri and Episkopi, and the fate of those bases are also uncertain, because there are now two agreements between the UK and Cyprus. One is a direct deal made earlier during the independence negotiations, and the other is more recent and under EU law.