The “unofficial” programme for the enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem in the Swiss city of Geneva next week was announced by the United Nations on Monday.

The meeting will take place on March 17 and 18 and will see both Cyprus’ sides as well as representatives of the island’s three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, and the UN convene to discuss the Cyprus problem.

The first event will be a meal at Geneva’s Intercontinental hotel on Monday at 7pm local time (6pm Cyprus time), with the head of each delegation invited and allowed to bring a plus one.

The UN added that there will be a “photo opportunity” with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for all attendees of the dinner.

Among other things on the menu at the Intercontinental’s Le Woods restaurant is a Swiss black angus fillet, which consists of roasted beef, chanterelles and mashed mushrooms, an onion soubise, and a potato cappuccino. It is marketed at CHF 52 (€55).

After the meal, the programme will continue at 9am on Tuesday at the Intercontinental with a series of bilateral meetings between Guterres and each delegation, with delegations to consist of no more than six people each.

Then, at 11.30am, the enlarged meeting itself will begin at the Palais des Nations, the UN’s building in Geneva. Once again, delegations are to be made up of no more than six people, and the meeting is scheduled to conclude at 2.30pm.

Guterres and the heads of each delegation will make an opening statement, while each delegation “is encouraged to ensure the significant inclusion of female participants in their delegations”.

President Nikos Christodoulides had said on Saturday during a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens that he will attend the meeting with a “clear plan”.

“I want to express publicly that I am going to Geneva with a clear plan, a clear design. We know very well what we want to achieve, and that is nothing more than the resumption of talks from where they were interrupted in the summer of 2017,” he said at a joint press conference at the Maximos Mansion.

Earlier, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar had said the Turkish Cypriot side will act “in a constructive manner”, but at the same time insisted that formal negotiations to solve the Cyprus problem can only begin once the Turkish Cypriots’ sovereign equality and equal international status have been accepted.

Despite his firm red lines for negotiations to begin, however, Tatar was keen to stress that in the absence of negotiations, there is fertile ground Cyprus’ two sides to cooperate with one another.