Nicosia, Cyprus. A tripartite meeting on the Cyprus problem involving UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin, President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman ended without any agreements. Holguin said no enlarged meeting would be arranged as a result.
Holguin: No enlarged meeting without progress on confidence-building measures
Holguin told journalists after the meeting that “for the time being, there will be no new enlarged meeting,” adding that “we need results on the confidence-building measures” for such a meeting to be arranged.
She said she was “waiting for something more,” and, when asked whether Christodoulides and Erhurman had responded to her earlier demand for more progress, replied: “I think they might. Not yet.”
Despite the lack of results, Holguin said she was “not disappointed,” adding: “All processes are dynamic. This one is a little slower, but we are continuing.”
Christodoulides presents five-point proposal package
Christodoulides also said he was not disappointed, speaking upon his return to the presidential palace, and outlined a five-point package of proposals he said he had submitted to Holguin and Erhurman.
He said the first proposal was to reaffirm “the basis for a solution to the Cyprus problem.”
The second proposal was for the UN to prepare a list of convergences found between the two sides up to the point when negotiations collapsed in Crans-Montana in 2017, and for that list to be shared with participants at the next enlarged meeting, involving the island’s two sides, the UN and the three guarantor powers: Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
His third proposal was to convene a new enlarged meeting, and the fourth was for that meeting to announce the resumption of talks based on the list of convergences.
His fifth proposal was for four crossing points to be opened after the next enlarged meeting: in the uninhabited Turkish Cypriot enclave of Kokkina, in the village of Louroujina, between Nicosia and Larnaca, in the eastern Nicosia suburb of Mia Milia, and a through road between Athienou and the southeastern Nicosia suburb of Aglandjia.
What steps do you think would be needed to achieve results on the proposed confidence-building measures?
