Ongoing efforts to arrange tripartite meeting

Efforts are ongoing to arrange a tripartite meeting between President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York next month.

Sources close to the matter said “something might eventually be achieved,” to this effect.

According to the Cyprus News Agency (CAN), given the current situation and the position of the Turkish Cypriot side, the Greek Cypriot side continues to face an obstacle.

The sources specified that the Turkish Cypriot side remains firm in its positions, and this is unlikely to change, but “we will see how the UN Secretary-General handles it.”

They did not rule out that “the situation could evolve in a way that might allow something to be achieved in the end, but we will only know this as things progress and we see how the situation unfolds”.

According to the same information, the next one or two weeks “will contribute to providing a clearer outlook.”

Regarding the presence of Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan at the informal EU Foreign Ministers’ Council in Brussels, the same sources noted that Fidan’s meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis provides an opportunity “for further work to be done towards making some progress on the Cyprus problem.”

“However, again, no one can definitively say that steps will follow on the Cyprus problem simply because of these contacts in Brussels. We need to see how this materialises in practice.”

Concerning President Nikos Christodoulides’ upcoming trip to New York for the UN General Assembly in September and whether meetings have been arranged, CNA’s sources said the usual meetings with the Secretariat and the UN Secretary-General will take place, but these have not yet been finalised.

The General Assembly will be held in the last week of September, and thus the programme of contacts may begin to be finalised in early September, the same sources added.