Holguin expected to return to Cyprus in early September, Christodoulides says

Nicosia, Cyprus. United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin is expected to return to Cyprus in early September, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Wednesday before meeting Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman.

Christodoulides said UN preparations concerning convergences were at an advanced stage and that he would raise the matter during the meeting.

Resumption of talks

Christodoulides said the aim was to create the conditions requested by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres during his visit to Cyprus last month: the resumption of negotiations from where they ended at Crans-Montana in Switzerland in the summer of 2017.

Holguin had travelled to Cyprus with Guterres last month. Following their meeting, Guterres said a new enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem would be convened after sufficient progress on confidence-building measures, the methodology of the meeting and the substance of the talks.

Confidence-building measures

Holguin has described the implementation of confidence-building measures as an indispensable requirement before an enlarged meeting involving the two sides in Cyprus, the guarantor powers Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, and the UN.

Speaking to Turkey’s Anka news agency, she said such measures should be practical tools for testing the viability of a future political order rather than symbolic steps aimed only at improving relations between the two communities.

She said they could demonstrate whether cooperation works in practice and help develop the collaborative habits needed for a future solution. She added that concrete measures could reduce public fears about change, provided they do not affect daily life.

Crossing point discussions

Potential new crossing points are among the confidence-building measures under discussion. Talks have remained deadlocked over whether to separate a package of four locations agreed by the two sides last year.

The Greek Cypriot side proposed removing Louroujina, northwest of Larnaca, from the package and opening crossings near Athienou and in the eastern Nicosia suburbs of Mia Milia and Aglandjia.

The Turkish Cypriot side has rejected discussions that do not include all four previously agreed locations.