President Nikos Christodoulides said that he requested the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres send his envoy for as much time as is needed, it emerged on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Turkish Cypriot side contends that the envoy will only remain for six months.

In an exclusive interview with Euronews on Friday, Christodoulides said that the envoy should stay for as long as is necessary. He added that meaningful talks on the Cyprus problem can restart if there is a common will.

Asked about his conversation with the Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, in Dubai, he said that he will not make their dialogue details public and that what interests him are results.

“There was a lot of talk about a meeting, about an invitation and so on. I want to tell you that if there is an invitation or a desire from the Turkish President, of course I will respond. I from the first moment and here in Brussels and in Germany and in France, which I have visited, asked if they can help to have such a meeting in which we will speak, we will list [our] views,” he said.

Commenting further about the invitation, which has caused a political storm in Cyprus, he reiterated that even publicising the possibility of such a meeting, “even if there is a 1 per cent probability”, takes it off the table.

Referring to the envoy, pegged as former Colombian foreign minister Maria Angela Cuellar, Christodoulides said that the appointment of the envoy could have happened earlier.

“But the positive thing is that there was an answer to our attempt [to get an envoy].”

Once the individual is announced, Christodoulides explained that the envoy will first visit Guterres in New York before coming to Cyprus.

“What I have asked from the United Nations, from the Secretary-General himself, is to avoid phenomena that we have seen in the past, and I mean that he [the envoy] comes to Cyprus for 24-48 hours, has a contact or contacts and then leaves Cyprus and comes after a month.

“I have asked the Secretary-General for the representative to stay in Cyprus as long as possible and to visit Turkey, Greece, Britain, Brussels. It is part of the effort being made, but [the individual needs to] come to Cyprus to work together,” he said.

Asked about his request to the European Union for a more active role in the Cyprus issue, Christodoulides said that he discussed it on the sidelines of the European Council with Council President Charles Michel.

“We talked about a certain person, who can take on such a role. There is a willingness from this person to take on this role. The President of the Council himself agrees. We are not there yet, but I believe that if we work, we can get reach the target. It is important that we discuss a very specific person,” he said.

Asked about it, he said that he could not mention the name, “but it is a person who has a leading role in European Union institutions, a person who has relations with Turkey, with Mr Erdogan. It is a person that we also we trust, and I think it will help. It will make a positive contribution to our effort to restart the talks and resolve the Cyprus problem,” he added.