The Greek Cypriot side is ready to participate in an expanded meeting on the Cyprus problem and to discuss confidence-building measures aimed at advancing the reunification of the island, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters after a memorial service for heroes Ionas Nicolaou and Kyriakos Kolokasis in Yeri, Christodoulides was asked about the week ahead, which will include a meeting with the Turkish Cypriot leader and a visit by the president of the European Council.
He said preparations had already begun, based on the outcomes of the UN secretary-general’s recent presence in Cyprus and the subsequent visit of the European Commission’s executive vice-president.
UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy Maria Angela Holguín is also due to visit Cyprus towards the end of the first week of September, he said, with intensive meetings expected to produce results ahead of the UN General Assembly in New York.
An informal milestone would be the week of the General Assembly, when the two sides are expected to meet separately with the UN secretary-general to brief him on developments, Christodoulides said.
“If there is a need, if the secretary-general considers it necessary, for an expanded meeting to take place, we are fully ready in that direction,” he said.
“Everything we are doing has the sole objective of restarting the talks from where they were interrupted,” he added.
‘We have an obligation to do everything possible’
Asked whether he was optimistic that results would be achieved before the meeting in New York, Christodoulides said the Greek Cypriot side had an obligation to do everything possible to deliver tangible outcomes.
“If there are no deliverables, which we do not hope for and do not want to happen, it will not be because of us,” he said.
Christodoulides said the first meeting he held with the Turkish Cypriot leader had produced a good initial discussion on substantive issues, methodology and confidence-building measures.
He said Holguín’s presence, together with work by the United Nations on existing areas of convergence, would help the wider effort.
He also pointed to contacts by the UN secretary-general’s personal envoy with the guarantor powers, particularly Turkey.
Four crossing points remain under discussion
Asked whether there would be an agreement to open additional crossing points, Christodoulides said a number of issues were being discussed as part of the confidence-building measures.
He stressed that any such measures should contribute to the broader objective of reunifying Cyprus and resolving the Cyprus problem.
“What I told the Turkish Cypriot leader, I also said publicly: we are ready for confidence-building measures that will strengthen the great effort to reunify our homeland and resolve the Cyprus problem. Not confidence-building measures that normalise the current illegal situation,” he said.
Regarding the crossing points, Christodoulides said the two sides had again discussed four proposed crossings at their most recent meeting, based on the proposals initially discussed with the UN secretary-general in Geneva on 18 March 2025.
He said the Greek Cypriot side had accepted what the secretary-general himself had described as a reasonable and compromise proposal during his most recent visit.
“In the end, there was no result, but we continue the effort, always in a spirit of goodwill, for results to be achieved,” Christodoulides said.
Source: CNA
