The United Kingdom’s Deputy Minister for Europe, Stephen Doughty, will meet with the two leaders in Cyprus on Friday, the Cyprus News Agency said on Wednesday.

His schedule for Friday includes separate meetings with President Nikos Christodoulides, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, Foreign Minister Konstantinos Kombos, Deputy Minister for European Affairs Marilena Raouna, Disy and Akel leaders Annita Demetriou and Stephanos Stephanou, as well as Republican Turkish Party (CTP) leader Tufan Erhürman. The visit is part of preparations for the Geneva talks on March 17, CNA sources said.

The enlarged meeting in Geneva will bring together both Cyprus’ sides, as well as representatives of the island’s three guarantor powers – Greece, Turkey, and the UK – and the United Nations.

In advance of the meeting, Christodoulides confirmed on Wednesday morning that he will travel to Athens on Saturday for talks with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. He said the aim of the meeting will be to review “some data and some elements.”

“Greece will be at the enlarged meeting, so Mitsotakis and I considered that it is important to have this meeting, which is why I am travelling to Athens on Saturday,” he said.

He also outlined his position, stating, “Our goal is one: the resumption of talks from where they were interrupted in Crans-Montana on the basis of the agreed framework. We are not discussing anything else.”

Meanwhile, the presidential office is waiting for responses from party leaders on whether they are interested in attending the Geneva talks. Former president Nicos Anastasiades has confirmed that he will go.

During the last session of the national council, Christodoulides reportedly told its members that any of them who wished to attend the Geneva talks were welcome, competent sources told CNA.

Tatar, on the other hand, had previously told UN under-secretary-general for peacebuilding Rosemary DiCarlo that the “sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people must be accepted” for any constructive steps to be taken towards a solution.

“The Turkish Cypriot people are the primary element in Cyprus and have an inherent right to sovereignty, and I conveyed those vital rights at the meeting,” he said during DiCarlo’s visit to the island last month.
DiCarlo also met Christodoulides while in Cyprus and later travelled to Athens to meet Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis, as well as to Ankara to meet Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister and European Union Affairs Director Mehmet Kemal Bozay. Bozay was deputising for Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who was in Pakistan on the same day for diplomatic engagements.