Cyprus diplomacy shifts gears with UN envoy's arrival

A period of mobility as regards the Cyprus problem begins with the arrival in Cyprus of the personal envoy of UN Secretary-General, Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar, Government Spokesperson, Konstantinos Letymbiotis, said on Thursday, noting that the government enters this new period with sincere political will.

Letymbiotis, who was replying to questions from journalists after a meeting of the Council of Ministers at the Presidential Palace, said that, in view of Holguin’s arrival in Cyprus “we are entering a new period, a period of mobility in the Cyprus issue which is what we sought from the very beginning.” He noted that Holguin is to have a meeting with President, Nikos Christodoulides, on Tuesday, January 30.

“It is an important development”, the Spokesperson said, noting that, “we enter this new period, with sincere political will, to catalytically contribute to creating the conditions for the resumption of negotiations from the point where they were interrupted, in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council”.

In response to a question about the Government's unilateral measures for Turkish Cypriots the Spokesperson said that the package of measures has been prepared, evaluated and is ready, for the moment the President of the Republic chooses, to announce. The measures, he added, take into account all data and legal regulations and parameters. “These are measures aimed at improving the daily life of our Turkish Cypriot compatriots,” he said.

The government has said on various occasions that the announcement of these measures was expected to take place before the arrival of the personal envoy of the UN Secretary-General in Cyprus.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres appointed María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar of Columbia as his personal envoy for Cyprus, to assume a Good Offices role on his behalf and search for common ground on the way forward in the Cyprus issue.