President Nikos Christodoulides said work remains to be done on the Cyprus problem, but that it can get done if there is political will, responding to a UN Secretary-General comment that considerable work is still needed, as he headed into a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman on Thursday, the last such meeting before next week’s high-level United Nations session in New York.
The meeting is part of regular contacts between the two leaders, focused on the substance and methodology of the Cyprus problem and on confidence-building measures.
Leaving the Presidential Palace for the meeting, Christodoulides said: “We are fully ready whenever the UN Secretary-General decides for us to take part in an expanded conference.”
Christodoulides said he believed, to the best of his memory, that this was his 11th meeting with Erhürman since October, following 16 meetings between the two sides’ negotiators. He said he was bringing 19 specific points covering substance, methodology and confidence-building measures, and that he hoped for positive results, calling the coming week critical.
He said he had spoken by phone with Fitto, the EU’s special envoy for the Cyprus problem, earlier on Thursday morning. He arrives in New York from Saturday midnight and will meet Olguín in his first days there. He said he was ready, if the Secretary-General decides, to take part not only in a bilateral meeting but also in trilateral talks and an expanded conference.
Asked whether Fitto planned further initiatives, Christodoulides said Fitto “has already taken initiatives” in line with the mandate he was appointed to, which he said covers EU-Turkey relations.
Asked whether he and Erhürman would discuss mixed marriages on Thursday, Christodoulides said this was not a confidence-building measure. Cyprus is a state governed by the rule of law, monitored daily by the EU, he said, and follows the same process for everyone who applies for Cypriot citizenship.
Asked whether the Secretary-General’s decision to rule out a trilateral or expanded conference in New York during the Assembly’s high-level week amounted to a pressure tactic, Christodoulides said no. He said the Secretary-General has 186 bilateral meetings scheduled with heads of state delegations between Monday and Friday of the official Assembly week, with other engagements after Saturday. Time was not the issue, he said: Cyprus was ready to stay in New York through Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday if needed, or to reconvene in October or in Geneva.
He said the necessary infrastructure to proceed with an expanded conference already exists. What is missing, he said, is political will.
