Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis said he is “satisfied and proud” with progress made on the Cyprus problem in recent months.

“The efforts made by the Greek foreign ministry at the United Nations, in concert with the Republic of Cyprus, was justified by the resumption of informal discussions after seven years of inactivity,” he told Greek news website Real News.

He added that after the most recent enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem, involving Cyprus’ two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the UN, in New York in July, “there is a timetable for the next steps and a list of confidence-building measures”.

That timetable should see Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and President Nikos Christodoulides hold a trilateral meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York later this month, before a further enlarged meeting is set to take place later in the year.

The next enlarged meeting will likely take place after the Turkish Cypriot leadership election, which is set to take place on October 19. Then, Tatar will be challenged for the role by former ‘prime minister’ Tufan Erhurman, who advocates for a return to negotiations based on a federal solution to the Cyprus problem.

Gerapetritis, too, said he is working in that direction, telling Real News that “we remain committed to achieving a just, sustainable, and functional solution within the framework of the UN security council resolutions”.

“The Cyprus issue is a top national priority, and we will make every effort for the reunification of the island,” he said.

He also added that the “improvement” of relations between Greece and Turkey has been “decisive” to progress so far.

He had earlier said that improved relations between the two countries have “created positive conditions for the Cyprus problem”, and that both have “shown remarkable will to take our bilateral relations on a different path”.

“Thanks to the level of trust we have achieved step by step with [Turkish] Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, we are able to meet and prevent crises,” he said.

With this in mind, he said the world is “living in a period of geopolitical instability and uncertainty” which has not been seen “since the second world war” and said that Greece and Turkey are located “in between two wars, in Ukraine and in the Middle East”.

“I think we both share the view that no problem can be solved without a consultative attitude and productive thinking. We continue to support [Guterres] in contributing towards finding a just, sustainable and functional solution to the Cyprus problem, within the framework of UN resolutions,” he said.

He then added, “in a world full of divisions, a united Cyprus would constitute a powerful universal symbol, in addition to the prosperity it would create for its citizens.”