Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held a telephone call late on Tuesday to discuss “regional issues”, with efforts both in Cyprus and abroad ramping up with the aim of bringing about a resumption of negotiations in earnest on the Cyprus problem.

According to Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, the pair discussed “regional issues” and “talked about cooperation between Ankara and the [UN]”.

Two weeks ago, Fidan had, alongside the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, and Internal Affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner, signed a joint declaration offering his support for Guterres’ efforts in Cyprus, with a “new initiative” on Guterres’ part having been underway in recent months.

In line with this, UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin is undertaking a round of contacts with stakeholders, and is expected to hold contacts in Brussels in the coming days before returning to Cyprus before the end of this month.

Last week, both Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had called on Erdogan to “seize the renewed momentum” to bring about a solution to the Cyprus problem, when the trio met on the sidelines of last week’s Nato leaders’ summit in Ankara.

Holguin’s return to the island will, in part, be geared towards efforts to convene an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem at some point this summer.

Such a meeting would involve the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the UN, though both Cypriot leaders have stressed that the meeting is not an end in itself.

Holguin, meanwhile, called on Cypriots to “seize this historic opportunity to negotiate a lasting solution” and said that Guterres is “evaluating which could be the next phases that will convince both parties to take concrete steps towards a final solution”.