María Ángela Holguín, the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy on Cyprus, has expressed optimism about progress on the Cyprus problem and about holding an enlarged meeting in a 5+1 format before the end of the year. She was speaking after her meeting with President of the Republic Nikos Christodoulides.
Trilateral meeting on 9 November
Speaking to journalists, Ms Holguín confirmed that a trilateral meeting will take place on 9 November. She will meet Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman on Monday.
The UN keeps up the pressure
The Personal Envoy stressed that the United Nations is continuing its efforts to achieve progress, in line with the mandate she has received from Secretary-General António Guterres.
“We are pushing and we will continue to do so. This is what the Secretary-General asked of me,” she said. She added that Mr Guterres wants to make use of every possible opportunity for progress on the Cyprus problem until the last day of his term.
Meeting with the President
Ms Holguín described her meeting with President Christodoulides as good, noting that she was briefed on his recent meeting with Mr Erhürman. She also welcomed the fact that the two leaders are continuing their direct meetings.
“I am optimistic and I hope that next week we will manage to have some results,” she said.
Conditions for a 5+1 meeting
Asked about the possibility of a 5+1 meeting before the end of the year, she said she remains optimistic. She made clear, however, that this requires progress on confidence-building measures, the methodology of the talks and substantive issues.
No interest in the Secretary-General post
Finally, asked whether she is interested in the post of UN Secretary-General, she replied emphatically: “No, no, no.”
