Nicosia, Cyprus. President Nikos Christodoulides said on Wednesday that his meeting with United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin next week will be part of an ongoing process tied to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ new initiative aimed at resuming formal negotiations on the Cyprus problem.
Ongoing contacts
Christodoulides said the meeting would not be the first held under the framework of the initiative. He said it would continue a series of meetings that have already taken place and will continue until Holguin arrives.
Holguin is due to hold separate meetings with Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on June 8, before travelling to Turkey and Greece.
Different views on timing
The question of when the new initiative will formally begin has been under discussion for weeks. Erhurman said a month ago that it would begin in July, after Cyprus completes its six-month term as holder of the Council of the European Union’s rotating presidency.
The Greek Cypriot side has said the initiative is already underway. Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said Christodoulides had made the initiative public after meeting Guterres in Brussels in March.
He said at the time that the Greek Cypriot side was ready to take part in an enlarged meeting “even tomorrow if it is necessary” to resume negotiations from where they were interrupted, in line with UN Security Council resolutions.
Efforts for an enlarged meeting
Holguin last visited Cyprus in January, when she held a tripartite meeting with both leaders. After that meeting, she said no enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem could be held until more progress was made on confidence-building measures between the island’s two sides.
An enlarged meeting would involve the two sides on the island, the three guarantor powers Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, and the United Nations. Christodoulides has said this remains his main goal, and earlier this month he said he expected the date of such a meeting to be announced soon.
He said then that Guterres’ effort was being strengthened and that he expected a positive outcome, which for the Greek Cypriot side could only mean an enlarged meeting at which the resumption of talks would be announced.
The holding of an enlarged meeting requires the consent of the Turkish Cypriot side. Erhurman has previously raised reservations about such a meeting taking place before substantial progress is made in confidence-building measures between the two sides in Cyprus.
