New talks on the status of the communities on Cyprus may be held soon, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres signaled on Wednesday. Guterres said he would convene new talks involving the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders on the divided island, as well as the three guarantor powers.
However, he gave no date for the meeting, which he announced at a brief news conference after holding a trilateral meeting with Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot President Tufan Erhürman to assess the prospects for renewed negotiations, nine years after the peace process collapsed.
"I have the consensus of both sides and the guarantors to move into a 5+1 meeting, but with adequate preparation," he said, referring to a format involving Erhürman, Christodoulides, and representatives of Greece, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.
The three countries were designated guarantor powers in 1960, when the island gained independence from Britain, and were entrusted with guaranteeing the constitutional order amid tensions between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities.
Guterres said the timeline for the meeting was "not defined, but we are going to work together as fast ... as possible."
