They will meet again alongside Eide on May 11 and 17
Eide to brief Guterres on Cyprus talks in NY
Special Envoy to Cyprus Espen Barth Eide will head to New York later this week to brief UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the latest developments in the peace talks.
President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci met on Tuesday in what the first of three meetings scheduled for this month. The two men held a four-hour meeting which Anastasiades described as “constructive”.
They will meet again alongside Eide on May 11 and 17.
In addition, the two leaders agreed to meet again in Nicosia in the presence of a representative of EU President Jean Claude Juncker on May 10 to discuss harmonisation of legislation in the breakaway north with the EU acquis.
Meanwhile, Eide will head to UN Headquarters in New York later this week to meet with Guterres and inform him on the latest developments, according to UN spokesperson Stephan Dujarric.
“There was a good discussion between the sides on several outstanding issues, even if several differences remain,” said Dujarric.
“We hope that they will do their utmost to move the process forward decisively in the crucial weeks ahead”.
Relations between the two sides have cooled this year despite signs of huge encouragement when Akinci was elected as leader of the Turkish Cypriot north in 2015.
The international community’s hope of a settlement have been dented by on-going squabbles of late over a series of incidents – which includes disputes between the Republic of Cyprus and Turkey over offshore drilling for gas in the south east Mediterranean.
Turkish Cypriots were also angered by the fallout from the Enosis Day bill controversy at the Greek Cypriot parliament. Greek Cypriots were also angered by a Turkish Cypriot ban for an Easter service at a church in Famagusta.
Akinci recently accused Anastasiades of putting his own re-election campaign ahead of the Cyprus talks.
