The negotiators of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot side will be meeting today Thursday, 20 August ahead of the meeting that President of the Republic Nikos Christodoulides will hold with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman on 26 August.
CNA has learned that the meeting of the negotiators will take place at 11am (local time) in preparation for the leaders' meeting.
The Greek Cypriot side's goal is to have a substantive discussion on 26 August on what was discussed during the visit of the UN Secretary General to Cyprus, especially the preparations for the next meeting in a broader format.
In recent statements, President Christodoulides stressed that this period will be particularly critical, with continuous and intense consultations, with the aim of convening an expanded conference by the UNSG and announcing the resumption of talks.
Meanwhile, the UN is underway to record the convergences achieved so far.
It is recalled that UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had announced after the joint meeting he had with President Christodoulides and the Turkish Cypriot leader on 29 July in Nicosia, that he decided to convene another 5+1 meeting, after appropriate preparation as regards the confidence-building measures, methodology and substance, taking into account the convergences that have already been achieved.
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 due to Turkish intransigence. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose term is nearing its end, announced he would convene another meeting in broader format, after adequate preparation, but gave no timeline. He secured to that end the consensus of both sides and of the guarantor powers. María Angela Holguín, Guterres’ Personal Envoy on Cyprus, is tasked to engage with the parties. Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto acts as the European Commission’s Special Representative for Cyprus, succeeding EU special envoy Johannes Hahn.
(Source: CNA)
