Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that his country supports UN Secretary General’s will to resolve Cyprus issue through political and diplomatic means.

In a statement during a press conference following a meeting with Antonio Guterres in Moscow on Wednesday, Lavrov said that they discussed many key issues on the UN agenda, including on the agenda of the Security Council and this includes the situation in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

“We’ve also discussed the very complex issue of the Cyprus settlement. We fully share the United Nations Secretary-General [will to] resolve this crisis through political and diplomatic means, including mediator efforts.

UNSG in his statement did not refer to the Cyprus issue.

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 5+1 informal meeting held in Geneva end of April, has failed to find enough common ground to allow for the resumption of formal negotiations in relation to the settlement of the Cyprus problem.

UN Secretary – General, Antonio Guterres, has said that he will convene in the near future another meeting of the 5+1, the five plus the United Nations, again with the objective to move in the direction of reaching common ground to allow for formal negotiations to start.