A meeting between the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General, María Ángela Holguín, and the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, is currently underway at the Presidential Palace.
This is Holguín’s second meeting with President Christodoulides since her arrival in Cyprus last Sunday.
Earlier on Friday afternoon, at 3.00 pm, Holguín also met again with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhrman.
Holguín’s meetings with the two leaders follow the initial talks she held with them separately on Monday.
The Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General is expected to depart the island on Sunday and subsequently travel to Athens and Ankara for further contacts as part of preparations for a 5+1 meeting on Cyprus.
As she stated following her meeting with President Christodoulides on Monday, she is preparing, together with the UN Secretary-General, for a 5+1 meeting, expressing optimism that the ongoing efforts would lead to such a gathering.
Government Spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis said earlier this week that the aim was to convene a new informal meeting on Cyprus, most likely during the last week of July or the first week of August.
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.