‘A step towards the mountain’ was the title chosen by the UNSG’s Special Representative Colin Stewart for a speech he gave on Wednesday night at CVAR in Nicosia about the current phase of the Cyprus peace process.

As expected of any diplomat or mediator dealing with the peace process, Stewart spoke about the positives but remained cautiously pragmatic. And when asked about the prospects of progress, during the question-and-answer session, all he was prepared to say was that “there are reasons to not despair.”

We had to be realistic and recognise that this was going to be a “step by step process,” the main objective of which was the return to the negotiating table where the sides “can actually sit down and discuss the solution.” The start of negotiations was the “mountain” and “we are now taking steps towards the mountain, but we are not there yet,” said Stewart, explaining that trust-building steps were necessary after so many years of inaction.

At least there has been a continuity of engagement since the appointment of a special envoy at the start of 2024, followed by the meeting of the two leaders with the UNSG in October and the Geneva meeting in March with the guarantor powers.

The steps are continuing, with the leaders set to meet again on May 5, by which time the UNSG’s personal envoy, expected to be named very soon, should be on the island.

As for the confidence-building measures, there has been little movement on the two difficult ones – the opening of four crossings and the setting up of a photovoltaic park in the buffer zone – but there was movement on the technical committee for youth and the committee for the environment, while Stewart hoped to have the understanding on Pyla of 2023 implemented before the parties returned to Geneva for July’s conference where more substantive issues would have to be discussed.

“There are signals the door is not closed to a mutually acceptable way forward,” said Stewart. In the three years he was in Cyprus, he heard from all sides that the “door is not closed to a settlement acceptable to everybody, but time is running out.”

The door, he warned, would not stay open for long, but he gave Varosha as an indication that it had not closed. There were reports that X, Y and Z would happen in Varosha and that hotels would be built, but nothing had happened so far. Stewart asked why nothing had happened and he was told that it was “because the door is not yet closed.”

In July there will be the next big step towards the mountain, when it is hoped the process would move from trust-building to more substantive engagement. Until then, the door will remain open, but it remains to be seen if after that, there will be “reasons to not despair.”