Nicosia: A first meeting between President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, and Turkish Cypriot leader, Tufan Erhurman, will take place on Thursday, November 20, at the residence of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, in the Nicosia airport area in the buffer zone, Government Spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis said here on Monday.
According to Cyprus News Agency, the Spokesperson stated that President Christodoulides will approach the meeting “with the same constructive attitude and sincere political will” to resume substantive negotiations from where they were interrupted in Crans Montana. The goal is to achieve a solution to the Cyprus problem based on the framework established by the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the principles and values of the European Union.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, which took place in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, ended without a conclusion.
In 2025, the Secretary-General hosted two informal meetings on Cyprus, in March in Geneva and in July in New York, while a tripartite meeting with the Cyprus leaders was also held in late September, at the end of the UN General Assembly High Level Week. An informal meeting in a broader format is expected later this year.
Mara Angela Holgun, the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy on Cyprus, is tasked with engaging with the parties, while former European Commissioner Johannes Hahn, designated by the Commission as Special Envoy for Cyprus, is also expected to contribute to the settlement process in cooperation with Holgun.