UN Secretary-General António Guterres will fly to Cyprus with a significant team of policy figures at July’s end, during which he will meet the two leaders first separately and then together for dinner, followed by a trilateral the next day.
The UN Secretary-General’s spoksperson Stéphane Dujarric confirmed on Thursday evening that, in addition to his plan to visit China, Guterres will also come to Cyprus from 27 to 29 July “as part of his good offices mission and his strong demonstrated commitment to the Cyprus issue”.
According to Dujarric, the UN chief will “discuss efforts to advance the peace process and support stability on the island, including through the work of the UN Peacekeeping Mission on the ground there”.
Significant UN presence
Guterres’s arrival within the next 10 days will mark the first UNSG visit to Cyprus since Ban Ki-moon in 2010. And he won’t be coming alone.
According to reliable sources, UN Personal Envoy María Ángela Holguín will also be flying into the island at the same time to join the UN chief. In addition, Guterres will be accompanied by Rosemary DiCarlo and Jean-Pierre Lacroix – Under-Secretaries-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, and Peace Operations respectively – and a team of around 10 UN officials, including policy figures from New York headquarters.
Day One: Leaders meetings, CMP, civil society and dinner
His programme starts Tuesday, 28 July, with a meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides at 10.30am at the presidential palace, followed straight after by a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman at 11.45am at the latter’s offices in the north.
In the afternoon, Guterres will visit the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) at the old Nicosia airport for a briefing, followed by a meet-and-greet with civil society representatives at the next door compound of the UN Good Offices.
On Tuesday evening, the UNSG will host a dinner for the two leaders at the residence of the UN Special Representative Khassim Diagne at the UN Protected Area in the old airport. It remains to be seen whether Diagne, Holguín, Lacroix or DiCarlo will also be invited or whether it will remain a private affair between the two leaders and UN chief.
Day Two: Trilateral, press and ‘até logo’?
On the second day of the UNSG’s programme in Cyprus, Guterres will join the two leaders for a trilateral at the old Nicosia airport, where after a good scrub down, the meeting room of the Good Offices will once again be put to use.
The meeting is scheduled to last one hour, from 10am to 11am, after which the UN chief will hold a press conference in the same compound at 11.30am before heading to one of the more modern airports on the island for departure. If the visit goes well, we might hear the Portuguese national tell the leaders (and press): ‘Até logo’ or see you soon.
Serious commitment
Guterres is the 9th Secretary-General of the UN. Most of his successors found themselves one way or another heavily involved in Cyprus. Guterres was no exception, jumping into the quagmire – otherwise known as diplomats’ graveyard – soon after taking office in his first term in 2017. Like his predecessors, he too experienced the disappointment of failure when the Crans-Montana conference collapsed in the early hours of 7 July 2017.
The fact Guterres is coming at all to Cyprus, and bringing with him a sizable team, is seen as a demonstration of his serious commitment to try and move the process forward.
Sources say the UNSG genuinely wants to make significant progress on Cyprus before leaving his post at the end of the year. The aim now is for the enlarged 5+1 meeting to take place in September, giving time for all the players to be in a position to create the best set up for the relaunch of talks – a development Guterres could then pass on to whoever his successor may be.
