Colin Stewart, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ special representative in Cyprus, on Tuesday expressed hope that Cyprus’ two sides will “use the opportunity” of next week’s enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem in the Swiss city of Geneva “to make progress”.

He was speaking at a launch of a documentary about the “Runite” bicommunal running event held last year, and said the event was “a deeply symbolic meeting of people who share a vision and hope for ending the division of this island”.

“It is a happy coincidence that we are celebrating this achievement just before all sides meet [Guterres] in Geneva for an informal enlarged meeting next week. Despite the ongoing differences in underlying views on the peace process, I sincerely hope the parties will use the opportunity of the Geneva meeting to make progress on the Cyprus issue,” he said.

The enlarged meeting 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 United Nations convene to discuss the Cyprus problem.

Christodoulides 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.