The Greek Cypriot side will undertake efforts to ensure the tripartite meeting set to take place on October 15 in New York, will “yield the best possible result”, Greek Cypriot negotiator for the Cyprus problem, Menelaos Menelaou, said on Saturday.
The upcoming dinner will involve President Nikos Christodoulides, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and UNSG Antonio Guterres.
“What is needed is to ensure that this effort that has begun will continue,” and be built on to bring the talks back to life, Menelaou said during an Akel conference on 50 years of Cyprus problem.
Asked whether the UNSG would propose anything during the October 15 tripartite meeting Menelaou noted that Guterres “never convenes meetings at his own level, just out of courtesy”.
The secretary-general “will seek to have, through this meeting, some result”.
“We have conveyed to the UN that we consider that, at this stage, it is necessary to make an evaluation of this first phase of the contacts carried out by the personal envoy of the UN secretary-general and to decide on the next steps,” he said, referring to Maria Angela Holguin.
“It is important, since such meetings are held, that they have a result.”
Menelaou said that also “from the point of view of the United Nations”, the feeling the Greek Cypriot side gets from its contacts with the UN, “is that we are faced with a difficult environment”.
The conditions at the moment entail one of the two sides officially stating their position that “it does not accept the historical compromise, the agreed basis”, referring to Tatar’s insistence on a two-state solution.
Menelaou added that “our engagement with the personal envoy of the UN secretary-general was not procedural, but substantive and in line with the position of preserving the acquis with all that it entails – the settlement basis, the convergences, the six points of UN secretary-general”.
“We’ve made an effort in this direction with the Turkish side as well,” he added.
“It is a fact that there was zero response.”
Referring to the broader geopolitical environment, Menelaou said that this must serve as a reminder of the need to multiply efforts while at the same time being pragmatic, to find the next, tangible steps in the direction of revitalising the political process and, by extension, the prospect of achieving a solution to the Cyprus problem.
“There are no frozen conflicts,” Menelaou said, noting that there is no stability, security, or long-term peace when a conflict remains open, adding that, it will keep “festering” in a way that it could lead to great threats, including the risk of a generalised war.
