Following an informal meeting on Cyprus on Tuesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told journalists that discussions were held in a constructive atmosphere, with both sides showing clear commitment to making progress & continuing dialogue.
Mr. Tatar and Mr. Christodoulides have agreed the following group of initiatives to build trust: opening four crossing points; demining; creation of a technical committee on youth; initiatives on the environment and climate change, including the impacts on mining areas; solar energy in the buffer zone; and the restoration of cemeteries.
We agreed to have in this format the next meeting end of July, and I will appoint a Personal Envoy to prepare the next steps, Guterres added.
He recalled saying “I think it is important to note that even before Crans-Montana, and we are talking about 2017 until now, there was no real progress on any aspect. And today, there was meaningful progress. And I hope that the confidence-building measures or the initiatives to build trust, together with the decision to have very soon a next meeting, and the acceptance by all of the appointment of a [Personal] Envoy on Cyprus to prepare the next steps, demonstrates the sense of commitment and the sense of urgency that I believe were extremely important. It is a new atmosphere.”
The leader of the Turkish Cypriots Ersin Tatar said that talks in Geneva on Cyprus were positive, and that he hopes to open a new page on a sustainable future for the island.
“We are faced with two options either we continue the way we are with all the repercussions, or build the future of the island together,” Tatar told reporters.
Entering the talks, Cypriot President Nikos Chistodoulides said where there is a will, there is a way” and he reportedly added that he “was ready.”
The two-day of talks to discuss the future of the island were hosted by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres with the participation of Nikos Christodoulides, Ersin Tatar, and the foreign ministers of from Greece, Turkey and Britain as the three guarantee powers.