President Nikos Christodoulides will meet UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this Thursday in what the government described as a pivotal meeting aimed at advancing efforts to restart substantive negotiations on the Cyprus issue.
Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said the meeting would take place during the high-level week of the 81st United Nations General Assembly, where the Cyprus issue remains the government's primary focus.
Letymbiotis said Christodoulides would also meet UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin before his talks with Guterres and would present ideas and proposals on Confidence-Building Measures, as well as on the methodology and substance of the Cyprus issue.
The spokesman said Cyprus' objective remained to help create the conditions for an expanded meeting under the framework outlined by the UN chief.
“Our objective remains unchanged: how we can contribute, to the extent of our capabilities, to making possible the convening of an expanded meeting, in line with the goal set by the UN Secretary-General,” Letymbiotis said.
He said the government viewed positively the prospect of a trilateral meeting involving Christodoulides, the Turkish Cypriot leader and either Guterres or Holguin, but no such meeting had been scheduled.
“So far we do not have the prospect of a joint meeting either with the UN Secretary-General or with his Personal Envoy,” he said.
Letymbiotis added that the president was prepared to extend his stay in New York if Guterres' schedule allowed such a meeting to take place after the General Assembly's high-level week.
Holguin is due to meet Christodoulides on Tuesday and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Wednesday, he said.
The spokesman also said the government expected to receive an update from Holguin on a UN effort to record areas of convergence between the two sides, a briefing that had been expected during a planned September visit to Cyprus that was later postponed.
Christodoulides is also due to address the UN General Assembly during the week and hold bilateral meetings with heads of state and government, institutional partners and energy companies.
