A UN spokesperson on Monday confirmed that a long-awaited meeting, termed as “informal” at this stage, between representatives of the two communities on Cyprus, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot, will take place in New York City this month in the presence of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric added that a specific date will be announced shortly.
Dujarric said Guterres invited both Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides, who represents the Greek Cypriot side, as well as Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, to an informal meeting with him to exchange views on the long-standing and currently inert Cyprus problem. Both sides accepted, he said.
Restarting the stalled Cyprus talks has recently been highlighted by both the Republic of Cyprus and the Greek government, including high-profile comments by Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The latter come in the face of repeated quips by Turkish leaders, most notably Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in favor of an official partition of the island republic along communal lines, as one-third of the island remains under Turkish occupation.
