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U.N. envoy Maria Angela Holguin said Friday she is optimistic that a broader meeting on the Cyprus issue could take place before the end of the year, provided the sides make progress on practical measures to build trust and on how talks should move forward.
Speaking after meeting President Nikos Christodoulides at the Presidential Palace, Holguín said efforts to break the diplomatic deadlock were continuing, with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres determined to pursue progress until the end of his term.
“We are pushing and we continue pushing,” she told reporters.
Holguín is due to meet Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman on Monday, ahead of a trilateral meeting scheduled for Nov. 9.
She described Friday’s discussion as good and welcomed direct contact between the two leaders. She said she had wanted to hear Christodoulides’ account of his meeting with Erhürman.
“I am here, I am optimistic, and I hope we can get something next week,” she said.
Asked whether a broader “5+1” meeting could happen before the year is out, Holguín said it was possible if there were advances in confidence-building measures, the approach to negotiations, and substantive issues.
Such a meeting would bring together the two Cypriot sides and the three guarantor powers—Greece, Turkey, and Britain—under U.N. auspices. No date has been announced.
For people on both sides of the divide, the immediate question is whether the renewed contacts can produce practical agreements that build trust and create an opening for wider negotiations. Holguín did not announce any new agreement Friday.
Asked separately whether she was interested in becoming U.N. secretary-general, Holguín said she was not.
The Personal Envoy of the @UN Secretary-General on #Cyprus, María Ángela Holguín, speaks to the media after meeting with @Christodulides. #uncyprustalks https://t.co/jV56yENyIF
— UN Cyprus (@UN_CYPRUS) October 30, 2026
Guterres has said he would convene another broader meeting once sufficient preparations have been made, with the agreement of both sides and the guarantor powers.
Cyprus has been divided since Turkey’s 1974 invasion. The last major round of settlement negotiations ended without agreement at Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in July 2017.
