Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiots on Thursday said that he is hoping for “tangible steps” to be made “in the immediate future” on the Cyprus problem, with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman and President Nikos Christodoulides set to meet on Tuesday.

He said he expects Tuesday’s meeting to entail a “thorough discussion on the next steps”, before stressing that “if we mean it, there must be tangible steps of progress in the immediate future”.

Regarding the 19 new points for discussion submitted by Christodoulides at the two leaders’ most recent meeting, he said that they had been put forward “so as to be able to assist” efforts to bring about a resumption of negotiations in earnest on the Cyprus problem “as much as possible”.

Those 19 points, he said, touched on “all three pillars set out by the UN secretary-general” Antonio Guterres, who had said when he visited the island in July that an enlarged meeting will only be convened “after adequate progress” is achieved on confidence-building measures, the meeting’s methodology, and the substance of the talks.

Erhurman had taken a different view of the 19 points, describing them as “throwing a spanner in the works”, and retorting, “in that case, let’s bin off the seven points and have 19 points this time, and then I will bring 29 points at the next meeting”.

To this, Letymbiotis on Thursday said that “I do not think that rejection without discussion is a step forward”.

“We continue to believe that a joint meeting in the presence of the UN secretary-general would be extremely helpful, and such a meeting is always helpful,” he said, with Erhurman having said that such a meeting should only take place “if there is a chance of reaching an agreement” on at least one confidence-building measure.

‘The EU and the Republic of Cyprus are one and the same’

On the matter of the response sent by the European Commission to Erhurman to a letter he had sent raising issues regarding initiatives undertaken by the Greek Cypriot side to bring about the cancellation of international events organised by the Turkish Cypriots, he stressed that “the letter was not quoted in its entirety” in Erhurman’s announcement of the response.

He then moved to defend the initiatives, saying that “everything we do and everything we must do as a sovereign state is in the context of defending the obvious issues which concern a semi-occupied homeland”.

Asked if the Greek Cypriot side will be informed of the content of the letter, he pointed out that Christodoulides had met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of Wednesday’s Med9 leaders’ summit.

“The EU and the Republic of Cyprus are one and the same, and the actions, the deeds, the positions of the Republic of Cyprus are the positions of the EU,” he said.