President Nikos Christodoulides on Sunday said he ha already spoken to heads of state in the region and in Europe for Cyprus to play a humanitarian role in the region.

He said the island has already been sounded out by the governments of Japan and China to potentially help evacuate its nationals from the area.

“The cancellation of flights concerns the countries of the region and due to the special situation, we have requests for the parking of aircraft in our country, commercial aircraft, and the Republic of Cyprus, always with deeds and not words, responds to this humanitarian role of ours,  a role that is internationally recognised,” Christodoulides said.

Asked how many Cyprus citizens are in the countries affected he said that a meeting on Sunday morning under the director general of the foreign ministry with the heads of diplomatic missions will address this issue.

He also reminded that the government spokesman and foreign minister on Saturday had called on residents there to contact representatives of the island and register there presence.

“There is knowledge in relation to the permanent residents of Cypriot origin, Cypriot nationals in these countries, but in some of these countries there were also Cypriot tourists. And it is precisely for this reason that we are asking for this recording to be made, to have an overall picture. And I think that by this afternoon we will have this overall picture, the total number,” he said.

Christodoulides also referred to phone calls he has had with president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Greek Prime Minister Kyriacos Mitsotakis. Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, meanwhile, will part in a teleconference later on Sunday with other EU foreign ministers to discuss the situation in the region.