UN Secretary-General António Guterres wants to achieve a Cyprus settlement before his term ends and has a plan ready to present at the next 5+1 meeting, expected in late July or early August, sources close to the process told Phileleftheros.
The meeting, most likely in Geneva, will bring together the two Cypriot leaders and representatives of the guarantor powers. Guterres plans to put forward specific ideas and a new framework for discussion, with the aim of setting out the steps to be taken before the end of the year, the sources said.
The EU factor is also playing a significant role for the first time, with Guterres in direct contact with European Council President António Costa. Sources who spoke to Phileleftheros said it is the first time the EU itself considers it has a role to play in the Cyprus issue.
Substance, not CBMs
The UN side wants the next 5+1 meeting to focus on the substance of the Cyprus issue rather than confidence-building measures (CBMs), sources said. Guterres does not want to convene a 5+1 meeting to discuss CBMs, according to sources close to the process.
The UN side has concluded that, beyond what has already been agreed and implemented, further progress on remaining CBMs is unlikely, the sources said. The opening of new crossing points also appears to offer no prospect of progress.
The lack of progress on CBMs was reportedly one of the reasons Holguin stayed away from Cyprus for a period — and not only because of the parliamentary elections and the Cyprus EU Council Presidency. She herself did not want to discuss only CBMs, while continuing to maintain contact with other parties involved, according to the sources.
Guterres plan ready
Against this backdrop, Guterres has decided to set aside the CBM issue — removing it as a precondition — and has prepared his own plan aimed at moving the Cyprus issue toward a strategic agreement, sources said.
Guterres’s ideas “will not come out of nowhere,” a source close to the process told Phileleftheros.
According to Phileleftheros’s information, one example of the mutual-benefit approach being explored — though not yet formally on the table — would see the Turkish Cypriot demand for three “direct” arrangements (flights, trade and contacts) met, with a new guarantees framework within NATO, replacing the existing guarantees which are considered outdated, offered in exchange.
The EU dimension
Guterres is in direct contact with Costa, while sources who spoke to Phileleftheros pointed both to Brussels and Ankara, and to the possibility of a meeting between EU institutional leaders Costa and Ursula von der Leyen and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. If it takes place, such a meeting would be held in the margins of the NATO summit in Ankara, just ahead of the 5+1 meeting. Costa and von der Leyen have already requested a meeting with Erdogan, and that meeting is linked to consultations on the Cyprus issue, Phileleftheros has learned.
The UN is also in open contact with Brussels and is ready to work with a new EU envoy on the Cyprus issue. During her meeting today with President Nikos Christodoulides, Holguin will ask whether there is any update on the appointment of an EU envoy on Cyprus, Phileleftheros has learned.
Holguin’s schedule
María Angela Holguín will meet Christodoulides this morning and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman in the early afternoon. She will then travel to Athens to meet Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis before heading to Ankara for talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
She will subsequently travel to New York to brief the UN Secretary-General, at which point final decisions on the new 5+1 meeting are expected.
What Christodoulides expects
In remarks on Sunday, Christodoulides said Holguin “is coming so we can see where we stand and how further momentum can be given, so that we achieve the goal of convening an expanded conference, during which the resumption of talks will be announced.”
“So I look forward to the meeting and hope there will be results,” he said.
Asked whether the other side had room to move closer, Christodoulides said he could not speak on behalf of the other side. “I hold the conversation conveyed to me between the Secretary-General and the Turkish President — that was, if you like, the trigger that prompted the Secretary-General to begin a new effort,” he said.
“A new effort which, I repeat, I hope will lead to positive results. We are ready on our side,” he added, noting that extensive contacts had taken place with members of the negotiating team, and expressing hope that the day’s discussions — including the afternoon meeting with the Turkish Cypriot leader and subsequent contacts outside Cyprus — would lead to the resumption of substantive talks.
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