President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, said on Thursday morning that he was fully prepared for his first meeting with the new Turkish Cypriot leader, Tufan Erhurman, stating that he had suggestions that could lead to positive developments in the Cyprus issue.
Upon his departure from the Presidential Palace, to go to the residence of the UN Special Representative in Cyprus, Hashim Dian, to attend the meeting, Christodoulides told the media that ‘the sole goal is to have positive results towards resuming the talks from where they were interrupted in Crans-Montana.’
“I have several suggestions and approaches on how to create these positive developments towards this direction,” he added, concluding with the wish that there will be a response by the other side that will produce ‘good news” after the meeting.
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. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.