Amid ‘constructive atmosphere,’ UN special envoy welcomes continuation of Cyprus negotiations

The Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot leaders have agreed to continue their pursuit of a comprehensive settlement for the political issues facing the Mediterranean island following their third meeting today, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, has announced.

In a statement issued earlier this morning, Mr. Eide confirmed that the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mustafa Akıncı, and the Greek Cypriot leader, Nicos Anastasiades, had pursued their goal of reaching a comprehensive settlement as soon as possible with “strong determination” and “driven by their joint commitment” to the process.

“Upon completing the baseline assessment, the leaders are now entering into substantive negotiations on unresolved core issues,” he declared. “The leaders agreed that these negotiations will be the centrepiece of their work from now on and that they will be dealt with in a holistic and interdependent manner.”

During the course of their recent talks, the UN official continued, both Mr. Akıncı and Mr. Anastasiades continued their work on further confidence-building measures in parallel to the negotiation process while also formulating a mandate for the new committee on gender equality for which they appointed members.

“Reaffirming the constructive atmosphere at the negotiating table, Mr. Anastasiades and Mr. Akıncı expressed once again their resolve to move forward without delay and to achieve further progress towards reaching a comprehensive settlement,” Mr. Eide concluded.

The next meeting between the Cypriot leaders will kick-off on 29 June.