The leaders of Cyprus’ two communities “have to make decisions” for there to be progress towards the implementation of new confidence-building measures between Cyprus’ two sides, United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin said on Friday.

Speaking after a meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides, she said she had visited the island “to get an overall picture of how things are going and inform the secretary-general [Antonio Guterres] about the next meeting” involving Christodoulides, Guterres, and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, which is set to take place on September 27.

Asked whether she believes there are “realistic prospects” for the implementation of confidence-building measures, she said, “the UN, I, and the secretary-general are doing the best we can, but leaders have to make decisions”.

She also confirmed that she will meet members of the committee on missing persons and that she will make visits to cemeteries which have been restored on both sides of the island, as well as holding a meeting with the bicommunal technical committee on youth and both sides’ chambers of commerce.

She will meet Tatar on Monday.

Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis, meanwhile, said the September 27 meeting “once again proves the personal commitment of [Guterres] to the efforts to resume negotiations … within the agreed-upon framework”.

He added that Christodoulides had “clearly reiterated our side’s will to continue to contribute in every possible way to [Guterres’] efforts to resume negotiations from the point at which they were interrupted” in Crans Montana in 2017.

Then asked whether there has been progress on the confidence-building measures which had been agreed at previous enlarged meetings on the Cyprus problem in Geneva in March and in New York in July, he said “there has been progress on some of them” but that “of course, it was not the progress we would have liked”.

“I believe … that if the necessary sincere political will were demonstrated, progress could also have been made on the issue of crossing points, an issue which was discussed extensively at the enlarged meetings … However, there has not been the progress which could have been achieved,” he said.

He added that the Greek Cypriot side is “continuing this effort, this constructive attitude which we have demonstrated throughout the previous period to contribute to [Guterres’] efforts”.

“It is with this will and this philosophy that we are travelling to the meeting in New York,” he said.

Christodoulides, Guterres, and Tatar will hold a trilateral meeting in New York on September 27, during the UN’s “high-level week” – the week in which world leaders will make speeches to the UN’s general assembly.

Earlier that week, Christodoulides will address the general assembly on September 24, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will make his speech the day before on September 23, and both British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will make their speeches on September 26.

After this year’s general assembly, a further enlarged meeting, involving Cyprus’ two sides, the UN, and the island’s three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, is set to take place before the end of the year, likely after the Turkish Cypriot leadership election, which is set to take place on October 19.

That election will see Tatar be challenged by former Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Tufan Erhurman, who advocates for a return to negotiations based on a federal solution.