President Nikos Christodoulides will attend a trilateral meeting in New York later this month with the UNSG and Turkish Cypriot leader with sincere will to facilitate the mission of the island’s special envoy, deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou said on Sunday.

He is due to meet United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Ersin Tatar at the end of September during the UN general assembly.

Christodoulides is also due to meet UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin on Friday, while she will meet Tatar the following Monday.

Her role is to assess if there is enough common ground to restart talks on the Cyprus problem and if so, pave the way.

Speaking at a church service in Kokkinotrimithia, Antoniou said that “we are working with the aim of resolving the Cyprus problem in a way that will lead to the evolution of the Republic of Cyprus into a modern European state, without occupying troops, without guarantors with interventionist rights, and will allow its legal residents to live, work and create, in conditions of security and prosperity.

“This is our highest goal.”

He said that “with the deepest conviction that we must give our children a free homeland, we will exhaust every negotiating possibility to overthrow the dangerous status quo.”

He added that it is within this difficult environment and after persistent efforts by the president that the UNSG appointed Holguin.

“The president will come to the trilateral meeting in New York with sincere will, which will facilitate the mission of Mrs Holguin and will pave the way that will lead to the resumption of direct negotiations for a solution to the Cyprus problem,” he said.