Following the ‘positive’ climate of the first leaders’ meeting between Nikos Christodoulides and Tufan Erhürman last Thursday, their respective negotiators will hold their first meeting this Friday.
According to CNA, Menelaos Menelaou and Mehmet Dana are scheduled to meet at Ledra Palace at 10am, in preparation for the arrival to the island of the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy María Ángela Holguín on December 4. Holguín is due to meet with Erhürman on December 5 and Christodoulides the following day. She will also visit Greece and Turkey after her meetings in Cyprus.
Following the leaders’ meeting on November 20, the two men agreed to have a trilateral meeting with the UN personal envoy during her stay in Cyprus. They also agreed for their negotiators to meet frequently to prepare for that trilateral as well as for the enlarged format meeting with the three guarantor powers, under the auspices of the UNSG.
It remains to be seen whether the ‘5+1’ meeting will take place by the end of the year as originally planned or get pushed back to next year. The effort at present is to prepare the ground to secure results from such a meeting.
President Christodoulides has set as his main goal the resumption of talks on the agreed UN basis, while Turkish Cypriot leader Erhürman has tabled four proposals on the methodology of any resumed negotiations on the Cyprus problem. He also tabled a 10-point package of proposals to improve the climate for a settlement during last Thursday’s meeting.
Meanwhile, former European Commissioner and current EU Special Envoy for Cyprus Johannes Hahn is also due on the island in December.