As long as the Turkish Cypriots are not considered equal and a solution based on equality is not accepted, there will be no common ground for negotiations in Cyprus, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar said on Monday.

He was speaking ahead of a meeting later in the afternoon in London with the personal envoy of the UNSG Maria Angela Holguin.

“The common ground required for a new and formal process can only be found by affirming our sovereign equality and our equal international status,” Tatar said.

The Turkish Cypriot leader said he was meeting “privately” with Holguin as she had also met with President Nikos Christodoulides last week in Brussels.

He recalled that the UNSG envoy’s mission had a six-month limit and Holguin was tasked with exploring whether sufficient common ground exists to start formal negotiations.

During that time, he had relayed “the realities” [of the situation] to Holguin and she had seen that “there is no common ground”, he said.

According to Tatar, the first steps needed to confirm sovereign equality and an equal international status for Turkish Cypriots are the “3Ds”, that is, “direct flights, direct trade and direct contacts.”

The Greek Cypriot population should treat the Turkish Cypriot population as equals, he added. Greek Cypriots “want to impose a solution, not on the basis of equality, but for the benefit of their own state,” he claimed.

The Cyprus issue remains unresolved to this day due to the “maximalist attitudes of the EU which is not positively inclined towards division and equality”, Tatar said, and noted that Holguin can perceive this state-of-affairs.

In statements last week, Christodoulides emerged from his meeting with Holguin on the sidelines of the EU council in Brussels saying it had been “very productive and specific“.

The president is due to convene the national council on Friday to brief party leaders about the meeting’s contents.

Elsewhere on Monday, Christodoulides will meet UN special representative in Cyprus Colin Stewart at the Presidential Palace at 4pm as part of the UN representative’s meetings with the leaders from both sides prior to briefing the UNSC in New York later in the month.

Stewart is also expected to meet Tatar on Tuesday at 4pm.