UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will discuss efforts to advance the peace process in Cyprus and is currently on his way to the island, according to a UN spokesperson.
Guterres is expected to arrive in Cyprus late on Monday, before midnight, according to CNA sources.
According to the UN spokesperson, the UNSG ‘will discuss efforts to advance the peace process and support stability on the island, including through the work of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP)’.
The same sources told CNA that Guterres was to be welcomed on arrival by his Personal Envoy, María Ángela Holguín, and his Special Representative in Cyprus, Khassim Diagne.
Guterres is due to hold talks on Tuesday and Wednesday with President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhrman on the way forward regarding the Cyprus issue.
The same sources said that on Tuesday morning, before his meeting with President Christodoulides, the UN Secretary-General is expected to hold a meeting with Holguín, Diagne, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo, and the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix.
The Secretary-General is expected to return to New York on Wednesday.
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.
After informal meetings in 2025, followed by a hiatus of several months, deliberations are underway for a new meeting in broader format to be held, as the term of the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres nears its end. María Angela Holguín, Guterres’ Personal Envoy on Cyprus, is tasked to engage with the parties.