UNSG personal envoy Maria Angela Holguin said she is quite positive and optimistic following a meeting she had on Monday afternoon with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman.
She described the meeting as very productive, adding that so was her meeting earlier with President Nikos Christodoulides.
“We are preparing the meeting of five plus one with the Secretary General. We don’t know yet the date, exactly the date, but in the coming months, July or August. So I am quite positive and optimistic, so we continue to push for that meeting and I hope we can have good results”, she said.
In a remark by a journalist that President Christodoulides said earlier that during this 5+1 meeting the resumption of talks is expected to be announced, the envoy replied: “We don’t know, you know, we will see what happens in that meeting. And if this [is announced] could be very good news, but I prefer to wait”.
She said that she is meeting with FM of Turkey Monday and then she is flying to Athens to see Greek FM.
Replying to a question she said that she is meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader again probably 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.