UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is continuing efforts to secure the resumption of substantive Cyprus talks before the end of his ten-year term, which expires at the end of December.
Sources close to the matter revealed that a planned tripartite meeting involving Guterres, President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman could take place before the end of November.
The meeting could also pave the way for a further enlarged meeting involving the two sides in Cyprus, the three guarantor powers and the United Nations.
The tripartite meeting is expected to take place after Guterres returns from the Philippines, where he will attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders’ summit from November 16 to 18.
It is most likely to be held in Europe.
Enlarged meeting could take place in December
Guterres said during his visit to Cyprus in July that an enlarged meeting involving the island’s two sides, the three guarantor powers – Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom – and the United Nations would be convened once “adequate progress” had been achieved.
The progress would concern confidence-building measures, the methodology for the meeting and the substance of the negotiations.
According to sources, if sufficient progress is recorded during the next tripartite meeting, an enlarged meeting could take place in the first half of December.
The Greek Cypriot side has repeatedly stressed that the next enlarged meeting should lead to the resumption of negotiations.
In July, Christodoulides said his objective was to secure a positive announcement on restarting talks from where they broke down at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in 2017.
The Turkish Cypriot side has also called for tangible results from an enlarged meeting.
In September, Erhurman said he hoped the next meeting would be one where “success is guaranteed”.
He added that his position reflected Guterres’ previous statements that “this time must be different” and that “the mistakes of the past must not be repeated”.
Leaders agree on new crossing points and confidence-building measures
On Monday, Christodoulides and Erhurman agreed to the simultaneous opening of two new crossing points.
One will be located south of Louroujina, near Larnaca, and the other south of Karavostasi, west of Lefka.
The two leaders also agreed to share archival material through the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage.
In addition, the Imagine programme, a bicommunal education initiative suspended since the Turkish Cypriot side withdrew in 2022, will resume under the supervision of the Technical Committee on Education.
The leaders also agreed on the restoration of several Maronite churches and an Armenian monastery.
Also read: Turkish media offer conflicting accounts of Christodoulides’ COP31 reception
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