Nicosia: President of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman are scheduled to meet jointly for the first time on Monday, April 6. This meeting follows their individual discussions with UN Secretary-General Ant³nio Guterres, aiming to explore potential advancements on the longstanding Cyprus issue.
According to Cyprus News Agency, Erhurman engaged with Guterres on February 11 in New York, whereas President Christodoulides recently met the UN Secretary-General on March 18 in Brussels. A government source informed that the forthcoming meeting between the two leaders will involve an exchange of views regarding their dialogues with Guterres and how the United Nations perceives the chances for progress on resolving the Cyprus conflict.
The source further mentioned that the meeting will delve into exploring possible approaches to advance the process, highlighting that continuous communication between the leaders is deemed beneficial. This meeting marks the first joint interaction between Christodoulides and Erhurman following their separate engagements with the UN Secretary-General.
Their last one-on-one meeting occurred on February 24 and concluded without a collaborative statement. Earlier, the two leaders met on January 28 as well. The division of Cyprus dates back to 1974 when Turkey invaded and occupied the northern third of the island. Various rounds of UN-mediated peace negotiations have not yet succeeded due to persistent disagreements. The last significant talks held in July 2017 at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, ended without resolution.
In 2025, the Secretary-General facilitated two informal discussions on Cyprus, in March in Geneva and in July in New York. Additionally, a tripartite meeting with Cyprus leaders occurred in late September following the UN General Assembly High-Level Week. Another informal meeting in a broader format was anticipated before the end of 2025 but has not been announced. Mara Angela Holgun, the UN Secretary-General's Personal Envoy on Cyprus, continues to engage with the involved parties.