President Nikos Christodoulides on Friday praised the “more than 10,000 Austrians” who have served in the United Nations’ peacekeeping force in Cyprus (Unficyp) since its creation in 1964.

He was speaking on the arrival of Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker at the presidential palace, and thanked Stocker for “Austria’s principled stance on the Cyprus issue”.

Those Austrian nationals have formed part of the more than 150,000 women and men from 43 countries who have served in Unficyp, 187 of whom lost their lives in the line of duty.

Christodoulides said Cyprus and Austria “enjoy very good relations” and said he wished to strengthen them, “particularly on the issues of migration and security”, given that both countries are members of the European Union, and neither is a member of Nato.

He and Stocker are set to hold extended talks later on Friday, with Christodoulides saying they will “exchange views on regional and international developments”, and that he will present Cyprus’ priorities for the first half of next year, when the country is set to hold the Council of the European Union’s rotating presidency.

Stocker said the two countries “share very good relations”, and expressed the will to deepen those relations, “in areas such as … security, the economy, tourism and education”.

Talks between Christodoulides and Stocker, as well as between delegations belonging to the governments of Cyprus and Austria, were set to take place on Friday morning.

Later on Friday, the pair are expected in the centre of Nicosia, where Stocker will be given a tour of the Green Line.

Stocker will then go to parliament and meet House president Annita Demetriou before Christodoulides will host a working lunch for him and his delegation, ahead of Stocker’s departure on Friday afternoon.