A trilateral meeting between President Nikos Christodoulides, Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman and UN envoy María Ángela Holguín is under way in the buffer zone in Nicosia, with hopes of securing progress on confidence-building measures and the wider Cyprus process.
The meeting began shortly after 11am with the arrival of the two leaders. Also present are Khassim Diagne, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), along with negotiators Menelaos Menelaou and Mehmet Dana.
Earlier, Christodoulides said he was attending the meeting with a "very positive attitude" and seeking "specific results", noting that the issues under discussion are among the 19 proposals submitted by the Greek Cypriot side.
For his part, Erhürman said he was bringing a package of bridging proposals and a new initiative that he believes could "completely change the dynamics" of the process.
Holguín's warning
In an interview with Turkish news agency ANKA, Holguín warned that failure to make progress on confidence-building measures could have serious consequences for the process.
"We will see what happens on Monday. I hope this time we can take a step forward on confidence-building measures," she said.
She also cautioned that if no agreement is reached, her report to UN Secretary-General António Guterres will state that no progress was made.
"If nothing happens, my report to the Secretary-General will say: 'Nothing happened.' Goodbye to everyone. Goodbye to me, goodbye to Guterres."
The meeting is widely viewed as a crucial test of whether momentum can be maintained towards further UN-led discussions.
