UNSG personal envoy on Cyprus, Maria Angela Holguin, on Monday said she was working, along with the Secretary General, for a 5 plus 1 meeting on Cyprus, in statements after a meeting in Nicosia with President Nikos Christodoulides.
Speaking to the media after an around 45-minute meeting with President Christodoulides, Holguin said she was glad to be back to Cyprus and that it was a ‘very good meeting.’
‘We are preparing the meeting of the 5 plus 1 with the Secretary General’, she said, adding that after Cyprus she would travel to Athens and to Ankara, before going back to Colombia and is to later return to Europe and visit Brussels.
She expressed optimism about the preparation of such a meeting.
Asked by a journalist if a 5 plus 1 would actually take place, she said ‘yes, it is’, but that they did not know when as yet because they needed to plan based on the participants’ schedule.
According to Government sources, the President is to meet again with Holguin on Friday or Saturday.
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.
In 2025 the Secretary-General hosted two informal meetings on Cyprus, in March in Geneva and in July in New York, while a tripartite meeting with the Cyprus leaders was also held in late September, at the end of the UN General Assembly High Level Week. An informal meeting in broader format that was expected to take place before the end of 2025, is yet to be announced. María Angela Holguín, the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy on Cyprus, is tasked to engage with the parties.