President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman will meet under UN auspices on August 26 as preparations continue for a new expanded conference aimed at reviving the peace process.
The meeting, scheduled for 4pm, was agreed by the negotiators of the two sides on Wednesday and forms part of efforts initiated following last week’s visit to Cyprus by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
According to the presidency, the discussions are intended to prepare the ground for the convening of a new expanded conference with the objective of resuming “substantive negotiations from the point where they were interrupted”.
The process will seek a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem “on the basis of the agreed framework and the convergences that have been achieved”.
The announcement follows Guterres’ commitment to convene another expanded informal meeting after what he described as adequate preparation on confidence building measures, methodology and substance.
Speaking after his visit to the island, Guterres said the next meeting would only take place once the necessary groundwork had been completed to maximise the prospects for progress.
“We must prepare the next meeting well, to ensure that it leads to a solution,” he said, adding that the United Nations would work with both sides and the guarantor powers “to create the conditions for the success of the meeting”.
UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq later said the Secretary General’s approach remains consistent with the organisation’s policy on Cyprus and that references to the various parties involved are made when they are considered useful in advancing the process.