UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the informal dinner meeting with Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar as “very good”.
The trilateral talks, which lasted approximately 90 minutes, took place at the United Nations building in New York.
Guterres thanked his envoy, Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar, for completing her mission, which he acknowledged “did not succeed”.
He stated that Tatar had agreed to a multilateral meeting at a date to be determined by the UN chief.
President Christodoulides reported that the dinner resulted in an agreement to hold informal meetings with the guarantor powers and discussions in Cyprus between himself and Tatar regarding the opening of additional crossing points. He noted that he did not “hear anything new from Mr. Tatar”.
“I reiterated tonight the importance of safeguarding the negotiating acquis”, Christodoulides said.
“The Secretary-General’s six points formed the framework for our interventions. Some suggestions were made by the Secretary-General but were not accepted by the Turkish Cypriot leader.”
Regarding Holguin’s mission, the Cypriot President clarified that Nicosia seeks its continuation, but “someone will have a leading role beyond the Secretary-General regarding the Cyprus issue”.
Government spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis wrote on X that the exploration of prospects for resuming negotiations would continue through an expanded meeting to be convened by the Secretary-General.
Tatar, in his statements, mentioned that “many things” were discussed with President Christodoulides and the UN Secretary-General, indicating that he defended his positions.
He said the next step would be a broader meeting including Turkey and Greece as guarantor powers.
The Turkish Cypriot leader also stated that he agreed to meet President Christodoulides “soon” to discuss the issue of opening more checkpoints.
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