Both President Nikos Christodoulides and European Union envoy for the Cyprus problem Johannes Hahn on Thursday said that “now is the time” for results to be achieved in talks on the matter after a meeting at the presidential palace.

Christodoulides lamented that the first two and a half years of his term in office, when two-state solution advocate Ersin Tatar was in office, were “lost”, before saying that “now is the time to discuss the substance” ahead of a meeting later in the day with Tatar’s successor Tufan Erhurman and United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin.

“I am moving to today’s meeting with the aim of resuming the talks from where they were interrupted in the summer of 2017” in the Swiss ski resort of Crans Montana, he said, before adding that “the EU’s involvement, your involvement, can help pave the way for the resumption of talks and, of course, for the solution of the Cyprus problem”.

Hahn, meanwhile, said that “indeed, I believe that it is time for results”.

“After so many difficult times, I believe that there is now an opportunity. I will not say it is the last opportunity, but there is an opportunity,” he said.

He then added that Europe “is relying on” Christodoulides to “find a good relationship with the Turkish Cypriot leader, so that the way is opened not only for the resumption of talks but also for a definitive, positive solution”.

Christodoulides responded by saying, “rest assured, if it were up to me, we would have been successful”.

He added that “we are truly happy to have you in this new effort” and said he “truly believes” that his meeting with Erhurman and Holguin, as well as Hahn’s own planned one-on-one meetings with both Erhurman and Holguin, “will pave the way for the resumption of talks”.

Optimism has abounded regarding the Cyprus problem after Erhurman was elected in a landslide as Turkish Cypriot leader in October, with Erhurman a supporter of a federal solution to the Cyprus problem – the model also ostensibly favoured by Christodoulides and the EU.

After being elected, Erhurman penned a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, declaring that he looks forward to “working closely and resolutely” with him “to achieve a just, viable, and lasting solution” to the Cyprus problem.

“I believe such a solution will also have positive impacts on our region,” he said.

He has also set out four points ahead of a restart of negotiations, which he says will facilitate more productive negotiations which would be less likely to collapse and less likely to leave the Turkish Cypriots in continued international isolation were negotiations to collapse again.

Those four points, sometimes referred to as “preconditions” – a term he resents – foresee that the Greek Cypriot side accept political equality, time-limit negotiations, and preserve all past agreements, and that the UN guarantee that embargoes placed on the Turkish Cypriots be lifted if the Greek Cypriot side leaves the negotiating table again.