United Nations Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy on Cyprus María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar said an informal 5+1 session on Cyprus remained possible by year’s end, provided the sides advance trust-building, negotiation methods and substantive issues.
Holguín made the remarks after meeting President Nikos Christodoulides at the Presidential Palace in Lefkosia on Oct. 30. “I am optimistic,” she said. The format brings together the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Greece, Türkiye, the United Kingdom and the United Nations.
No date has been announced for a 5+1 meeting. In July, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he would convene another gathering after adequate preparation on confidence-building, methodology and substantive issues. He said no deadline had been set at that time.
The communities have lived mainly in separate regions of Cyprus since 1974, divided by a UN-controlled buffer zone. A UN-facilitated conference at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, ended without agreement in July 2017.
In a statement about the 13th Summit of the Organization of Turkic States in Ankara, the Turkish Cypriot presidency said leader Tufan Erhürman would continue working with Türkiye toward a fair, lasting settlement. It said Erhürman viewed efforts for a Cyprus settlement and Turkish Cypriot integration with the international community as mutually reinforcing.
The UN described environmental initiatives and cultural-artifact exchanges agreed by the two leaders on Oct. 20 as practical confidence-building work. Holguín also pointed to negotiation methods and substantive issues as preparation for a broader meeting, linking the possible gathering to both practical initiatives and the future talks agenda.
The leaders said they looked forward to a trilateral meeting with Holguín on Nov. 9, according to the UN’s Oct. 20 statement. That is the next scheduled step in the current process.
