Cyprus Leaders to Meet Again in Late April as UN Hails Talks as ‘Constructive’

The meeting, held at the residence of the Secretary-General’s Special Representative Khassim Diagne, opened with a private one-on-one between the two leaders before both negotiators joined.

The leaders then met alone again, and the negotiators returned for the close, Phileleftheros understands.

The UN said both sides exchanged views on the substance of the Cyprus problem and on next steps, and that the two leaders had tasked their representatives with continuing consultations to finalise outstanding issues.

A late April meeting, the statement said, would bring more specific announcements.

Christodoulides told reporters it had been a good meeting. “We discussed at length substantive issues — all those that the Secretary-General highlighted to me at our meeting in Brussels, this political will to see concrete developments,” he said.

He said Guterres already had a plan in motion. “He has a plan in mind, which he has begun working on towards implementation. We welcome this decision by the Secretary-General and hope there will be positive results,” he said.

The two leaders also exchanged views on confidence-building measures and asked their negotiators to finalise as many outstanding issues as possible.

“There is progress — I should mention that — on some of them,” Christodoulides said, though he declined to specify which measures had advanced.

On the Secretary-General’s timeline, Christodoulides said Guterres was already working “away from the public eye” and was “in contact with all sides, in Cyprus and outside Cyprus,” with resumption of talks the overriding goal.

Both leaders welcomed Guterres’s continued engagement and reaffirmed their support for his efforts, according to the UN statement.

The result stood in contrast to the mood before the meeting, when expectations had been low. At their previous encounter the two leaders had failed to agree on any joint statement, and Erhürman’s public positions in the days leading up to Tuesday’s talks had appeared anything but encouraging.

Source: In-Cyprus