Rival Cyprus leaders commit to new engagement at meeting
Source: NEOS KOSMOS
Rival Cyprus leaders signalled fresh commitment to reviving a long-stalled peace process during a meeting Thursday on the divided Mediterranean island, the United Nations said.
It was the first time President Nikos Christodoulides of the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus sat down with his new counterpart from the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Tufan Erhurman, who was elected in October.
The meeting took place in the presence of United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin at the UN compound in Nicosia, and followed a March summit in Geneva at which Cypriot leaders made their first meaningful progress in years.
In a statement issued after the talks, the UN said the leaders were committed to moving the process forward, and had agreed to participate in a broader informal meeting to be convened by UN chief Antonio Guterres, who hosted the March summit.
“They committed to continue to work in the meantime in Cyprus to produce tangible results for the benefit of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots and to ensure the success of the next informal meeting,” said the UN statement.
“To this end, they expressed their willingness to meet as often as needed,” it added, while cautioning that confidence-building was “not a substitute for achieving a solution to the Cyprus problem”.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Turkish invasion followed a coup in Nicosia backed by Greece’s then-military junta. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, declared in 1983, is recognised only by Ankara.
The Republic of Cyprus, a member of the European Union, controls the island’s majority-Greek Cypriot south.
Decades of UN-backed talks have failed to reunify the island.
The last major round of peace talks collapsed in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in July 2017.
In March, Guterres said there was now a “new atmosphere” and sense of urgency after both sides agreed to open additional crossing points and remove landmines.
Earlier Thursday, the EU’s special envoy for Cyprus, Johannes Hahn, said “there’s an opportunity, and it’s time to deliver” after meeting Christodoulides.
The Turkish-speaking north covers about a third of the island, including parts of Nicosia.
Erhurman has indicated he favours a federal state that would include both sides of the island, a settlement long supported by the UN and EU.
Source: AFP
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