Cyprus leaders agree to meet every week after Guterres’s July visit
Nikos Christodoulides and Tufan Erhürman sat for nearly three hours in the Nicosia buffer zone, their first meeting since the UN secretary-general left the island. They set 2 September for the next round. No deal was reached on new crossing points.
Nicosia1 min read
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President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman agreed on Wednesday to meet once a week, and more often if needed, after nearly three hours in the United Nations compound in Nicosia’s buffer zone. It was their first face-to-face meeting since António Guterres visited in late July. The next session is set for 2 September.
A UN statement called the talks constructive. The only other item on the record was a promise to name, on Thursday, the steering committee of a Civil Society Consultative Body already agreed as a confidence-building measure. There was no deal on new crossing points. The Greek Cypriot side wants two opened together, at Mia Milia and on the Athienou–Pyroi–Aglantzia axis. That file stayed closed.
What Guterres said he would not convene
The secretary-general told both sides he would call a new 5+1 meeting — the two leaders plus Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom — only after “adequate progress” on confidence-building measures, methodology and substance. He said he did not want another summit without results. UN envoy María Ángela Holguín is due back in the first week of September and is expected to sit in when she is on the island.
Christodoulides said both men will brief Guterres separately at the UN General Assembly late next month. That leaves at least three weekly meetings before New York. Erhürman had already called weekly sessions “homework” after the July visit. The island has been divided since 1974. Weekly meetings are not a settlement. They are the test Guterres set for whether he will risk another conference.
