President Nikos Christodoulides met on Thursday in New York with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, saying later that the UN chief is “considering” a three-way meeting, noting though that there must also be a response from the Turkish Cypriot side.
Speaking to journalists, the president expressed satisfaction with the meeting he had with Guterres and said that the new ideas he submitted on issues of substance, methodology, and confidence-building measures were positively received by the UN Secretary General.
Christodoulides said he was glad “because the strategy we had set for the more active involvement of the EU is key to this great effort, and as the UN Secretary General informed me, he discussed the Cyprus issue in detail with the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Council”.
On Thursday, he said, a joint meeting of the two negotiators will be held with the UN Deputy Secretary General and the UNSG’s Personal Envoy for Cyprus.
Christodoulides informed Guterres that he is ready to extend his stay in New York, if he deems it necessary, so that there can be a joint meeting, while thanking the UN Secretary General for his strong commitment so that there will be developments aimed at resuming negotiations before the end of Gutteres’ term.
“And I believe, based on what I have heard, what we have discussed, that yes, it is a feasible development if there is political will,” he stressed, adding that the UN Secretary General is working towards this direction.
Asked whether the UNSG is considering a trilateral meeting, the president responded in the affirmative.
“You understand that there must be a response from the other side as well,” he told reporters.
Asked about some of the 19 new ideas he submitted, the president demurred, saying he would not like to refer publicly to them.
“Let us give room to diplomacy in the next few hours, in the next days, and see if there are any specific developments,” he offered.
Christodoulides expressed confidence that the UN Secretary General is doing everything possible to convene an expanded conference that would lead to the resumption of Cyprus talks.
On whether he had any information from Guterres regarding the latter’s meeting with Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan, the president said the UN chief informed him about the meeting and that their discussion began actually from there.
Asked about the document of convergences, he said that it is in its final form and is part of the broader discussions they had.
Responding to another question, he noted that the UN’s and the EU’s efforts are geared at ‘unblocking’ the impasse, which could lead to new talks, picking up from where they left off at Crans Montana in 2017.
Guterres, who steps down on December 31, had announced he would convene another meeting in broader format, after adequate preparation, but gave no timeline.
Maria Angela Holguin, his personal envoy on Cyprus, is tasked to engage with the parties.
Meanwhile in a brief statement of its own, the UN said that Guterres and Christodoulides on Thursday discussed “the way forward on the Cyprus issue”.
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