First joint meeting after months
President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman held their first joint Cyprus leaders meeting at the UN Good Offices, with UN envoy María Ángela Holguín attending.
After the session, both leaders left separately, while the UN is expected to release a written statement.
Earlier, the leaders visited the Anthropological Laboratory of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP), where staff, Holguín and the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Cyprus greeted them.
UN highlights political equality
During a separate trilateral meeting lasting over three hours, the leaders reaffirmed their commitment to produce concrete results for both communities and to prepare the ground for a wider informal meeting under the UN.
According to the UN spokesperson, the leaders confirmed that their shared goal is a comprehensive settlement based on political equality as defined in UN Security Council resolutions.
They treated confidence-building measures as useful tools but not substitutes for a final solution.
The meeting unfolded in a constructive atmosphere. The leaders reviewed earlier confidence-building initiatives, put forward new ideas and agreed to prioritise issues such as opening new crossing points, advancing the halloumi dossier and building water pipelines from the Mia Milia wastewater plant.
They also agreed to boost staffing at crossing points and welcomed the widening works at the Agios Dometios crossing, which should finish in the coming months.
Christodoulides: “A very good and substantive meeting”
President Christodoulides expressed satisfaction with the depth of the discussions and the reference to UN Security Council resolutions, the first such mention after a leaders’ meeting since October 2020.
He raised several issues on behalf of the Greek Cypriot side, including:
- CMP operations and missing persons
- Matters concerning enclaved residents
- Issues affecting the Maronite and Armenian communities
- Place-name policies in the occupied areas
- Taxes imposed on goods transported across crossing points
- Unrestricted access to restored churches in the occupied areas
The President confirmed ongoing discussions on opening new crossing points but noted that the two sides have yet to reach agreement. He proposed a pedestrian-only crossing in Nicosia, but the Turkish Cypriot side did not accept it.
On the scheduling of the expanded informal conference, he said the UN envoy will decide after her upcoming contacts in Athens and Ankara.
Erhürman reports progress on halloumi and crossings
Tufan Erhürman highlighted concrete steps achieved during the meeting. He said both sides aim to finalise the halloumi/hellim dossier by the end of January.
On crossing points, he confirmed several developments:
- Extra staff will support all crossings
- The seven control booths at Agios Dometios will remain in operation
- Vehicle insurance and permit services will expand to Astromeritis and Deryneia
He added that the leaders agreed to intensify work on crossings and make progress on wastewater issues in Mia Milia.
Erhürman repeated the Turkish Cypriot interpretation of political equality as joint decision-making in fields involving shared sovereignty.
He stressed that their four-step methodology, including rotating presidency, must stand as a package before starting full negotiations.
He noted that the meeting did not touch on security or guarantees and that the Greek Cypriot proposals focused strictly on confidence-building measures.
Looking ahead to a potential five-party conference, Erhürman said both sides must deliver progress on practical files such as crossings and renewable-energy projects in the buffer zone.
Also read: Christodoulides-Mitsotakis talk before Erhürman-Holguín meet
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