Nicosia, Cyprus. The European Union remains committed to supporting United Nations efforts to reach a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus issue, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said after speaking with UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin on Tuesday. The call came ahead of Holguin’s visit to Brussels on Wednesday and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ visit to Cyprus next week.
EU and UN contacts
In a post after the call, Kallas described the conversation as good and said she and Holguin had discussed recent developments on the Cyprus issue.
“The EU remains firmly committed to supporting the UN led efforts for Cyprus,” Kallas said.
She added that they discussed the importance of maintaining momentum towards a comprehensive settlement and agreed to continue their discussions during the UN General Assembly in September.
Upcoming meetings
Holguin is scheduled to meet European Commission Cyprus envoy Raffaele Fitto in Brussels on Wednesday before travelling to Ankara for talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday.
The meetings precede Guterres’ visit to Cyprus next week. He is expected to hold separate meetings with President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman before chairing a joint meeting between the two leaders.
Negotiation efforts
The renewed diplomatic contacts are part of wider efforts to create conditions for the resumption of formal Cyprus settlement negotiations.
Holguin is also working to convene an enlarged meeting later this year involving the two sides, the three guarantor powers and the United Nations.
Christodoulides and Erhurman have both said that any future meeting must deliver meaningful progress rather than become an end in itself.