Ankara, Turkey. United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus chief Khassim Diagne met Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Kemal Bozay in Ankara as efforts to resume negotiations on the Cyprus problem continue. No formal statements were made after the meeting.
Meeting in Ankara
The meeting took place ahead of next week’s Nato leaders’ summit in Ankara, which is to be hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Nato summit attendees
Notable expected attendees at the summit include United States President Donald Trump, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, European Council President Antonio Costa, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Security guarantees discussion
While Cyprus is not expected to top the agenda, the summit will take place as discussions continue regarding security guarantees in a post-solution Cyprus, centring on the idea of those guarantees being provided through a Nato-based structure.
Those guarantees may take the form of the new Cypriot republic’s accession to Nato, alongside the presence of Nato troops from Turkey, Greece, France, the United Kingdom, and the United States on the island.
Holguin postpones contacts
UN envoy for the Cyprus problem Maria Angela Holguin postponed her planned contacts until after the conclusion of the Nato summit. Her next meeting, with Antonio Costa in Brussels, is now scheduled for June 13.
Nato response
When asked about the prospect of Holguin meeting Nato officials while in Brussels, which is also the seat of Nato headquarters, and about Nato-based security guarantees in a post-solution Cyprus, a Nato official told the Cyprus Mail that “there are no meetings planned with the envoy and the topic has not been discussed at Nato”.
Next steps
After completing her contacts in Brussels, Holguin is expected to return to Cyprus in the second half of next month with a view to organising an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem involving the island’s two sides, Greece, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the UN.
That meeting had initially been pencilled in for the end of next month or the beginning of August and will now likely take place later in August at the earliest.
Christodoulides comment
Following the delays, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Monday that efforts to bring about a resumption of negotiations in earnest on the Cyprus problem have not been “frozen”.