Christodoulides and Erhurman to meet before UN General Assembly

Nicosia, Cyprus. President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman are due to meet on Thursday in their latest round of talks.

The meeting will be their last before the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 28.

Meeting at UN offices

The meeting is scheduled for 11am at the United Nations offices at the former Nicosia airport.

The two leaders have been holding regular meetings as part of efforts to continue substantive discussions.

Their previous meeting, on September 9, focused on methodology, the substance of negotiations and confidence-building measures.

Greek Cypriot negotiator Menelaos Menelaou met Turkish Cypriot representative Mehmet Dana earlier this week for discussions ahead of the leaders’ meeting.

UN Secretary-General’s comments

The meeting follows UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ announcement on Wednesday that no 3+1 or 5+1 meeting on the Cyprus problem would take place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Guterres said “there is still much work to be done” and that no such meeting would take place during the General Assembly, responding to a question on whether the relevant conditions had been set.

He said any new meeting must be prepared in a way that creates real prospects for an outcome, adding that “we cannot repeat the mistakes of the past.”

Guterres reiterated the UN’s commitment to progress on the Cyprus problem, saying the organisation was determined to move matters forward and to do everything possible when conditions were met for a successful meeting.