Nicosia, Cyprus. President Nikos Christodoulides said on Thursday that “intense mobility” on the Cyprus problem is under way for the first time in many years, speaking at a cabinet meeting.
UN secretary-general’s visit
Christodoulides said United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ visit to Cyprus this week was the result of a systematic effort which began when he took office in March 2023.
He said Guterres had obtained the consent of all parties involved to convene an enlarged meeting involving the island’s two sides and the three guarantor powers: Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
Enlarged meeting and convergences
Guterres stressed that the next enlarged meeting must produce results, Christodoulides said, adding that it could not be held merely for its own sake, echoing Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman.
Christodoulides said it was particularly important that Guterres had publicly referred for the first time to convergences reached in previous negotiations and to negotiations based on those convergences.
He said the matter was discussed during his meeting with Guterres at the presidential palace on Tuesday and at a tripartite meeting with Guterres and Erhurman on Wednesday.
According to Christodoulides, the convergences address questions about the form of a solution and the subject of negotiations, matters on which there had previously been doubt.
European Union role
Christodoulides also referred to Guterres’ new initiative this year aimed at resuming negotiations and said the European Union’s role in the effort, which Cyprus had sought from the outset, was now accepted.
He said the EU’s involvement would concern both the content of a solution and relations between Europe and Turkey, including Turkey’s objectives.