Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos on Wednesday night met his Azeri counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov.

The pair met on the sidelines of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit in Malta, with Kombos saying on social media after the meeting that the pair’s discussion touched on “a number of regional and international issues”.

Bayramov said after the meeting that the pair had discussed “broader regional security issues”, and also stressed the “importance of continuing the dialogue” between the Republic of Cyprus and Azerbaijan.

Wednesday’s meeting is the second time Kombos and Bayramov have met, with the pair having also met on the sidelines of last month’s Cop29 summit in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku.

President Nikos Christodoulides had said that meeting was “a meeting which, beyond symbolism, is of particular essential importance.”

The two meetings, as well as Christodoulides’ reception in Baku in November as the president of Cyprus, mark a shift in Azerbaijan’s stance on the Cyprus problem.

Previously, the country’s President Ilham Aliyev reportedly told Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar he “attaches great importance to the TRNC” during a bilateral meeting, and invited Tatar to attend a summit of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) in the country in July.

Azerbaijan had been seemingly flirting with recognition of the north, with Aliyev saying in June his country was making “diplomatic efforts” for the north to become an observer member of the OTS, with the north’s observer status having been agreed upon by the OTS’ leaders’ summit in 2022, but with parliamentary ratification from the five member states still pending.

He had added at the time that he supports the north becoming a full member of the OTS.

Tatar most recently made reference to the north on the 41st anniversary of the north’s unilateral declaration of independence on November 15, saying, “the Turkish Cypriot people are increasing their status with new achievements in the Turkic world”, and added that he wished to thank Aliyev.