President Nikos Christodoulides on Sunday he is ready to meet UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin this week and has “some concrete ideas on how to proceed”.

“I consider it particularly important that Mrs Holguin will visit Cyprus before the UN General Assembly, on the sidelines, as you know, of which there will be a meeting with the UN Secretary General and the Turkish Cypriot leader,” he said attending a memorial service for former foreign minister Alecos Michaelides.

He added that, despite Holguin postponing her visit to Cyprus last week, and despite the short period of time, her appointment shows the political will of the UNSG to see positive developments, “both in the direction of what we have agreed and in the great goal of resuming talks.”

We are ready, he said, “for this meeting, we have some concrete ideas, on how to proceed.”

He said the most important thing is that agreements already made are implemented.

Asked if we can be optimistic about the meeting with UNSG Antonio Guterres and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar later in September, Christodoulides said the current holding of five Greek Cypriots in the north “it is certainly something that does not create the necessary environment that we would like to have, but at the same time we know very well that the situation in the Cyprus problem has never been easy, despite the problems, the difficulties, the challenges.

“We are here to do everything possible, precisely because for us the current state of affairs cannot be the future of the Cyprus problem,” he stressed.

He also said Monday’s visit to the island by the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Alain Berset is important taking into account that “five of our compatriots continue to be illegally detained” in the north.

“This action is from the occupying Turkey and it is an issue on which we are already in contact,” he said, adding that a bilateral message had been sent to the White House.

“It is an opportunity tomorrow to discuss even more concretely the continuation of the other actions we are taking in various directions, hoping that this illegal, this piratical act will be put to an end as soon as possible,” he said.