The informal tripartite dinner meeting with the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders in New York was described by “very good” by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The meeting between President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar took place in the early hours of Wednesday, Cyprus time, at UN headquarters in New York, and lasted about an hour and a half.
The outcomes of the meeting were an agreement to future multilateral meetings and discussion over the opening of more crossing points.
Christodoulides and Tatar agreed to an upcoming informal meeting in the near future with guarantor powers, on a date to be set by the UNSG.
They also agreed to meet in Cyprus to discuss further confidence building measures, that is, the opening of additional crossing points.
Christodoulides after the meeting said that he had reiterated the need to follow the negotiated acquis and had “not heard anything new from Mr. Tatar.”
He said some suggestions had been made by the secretary general which were not accepted by the Turkish Cypriot leader.
Tatar in his statements said “many things were discussed” and that the next step will be a wider meeting with Turkey and Greece as guarantor powers.
He added that he agreed to meet Christodoulides to discuss the issue of the crossing points.
Guterres in his statement underscored the UN’s commitment to participate in securing a peaceful resolution to the Cyprus issue, for the benefit of all Cypriots and future generations.
The UNSG expressed regret that despite the involvement of his special envoy Maria Angela Holguin no common ground between the parties had been found.
