President Nikos Christodoulides on Thursday told Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of the need to convene an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem as soon as possible.

The pair held a telephone conversation after Christodoulides’ meeting with European Union envoy for the Cyprus problem Johannes Hahn and before the planned tripartite meeting later in the day of Christodoulides, Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman, and United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin.

Greece, as one of Cyprus’ three guarantor powers, attends enlarged meetings on the Cyprus problem and is typically represented by its Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis, with fellow guarantor powers Turkey and the United Kingdom, as well as the island’s two sides and the UN, also represented.

Christodoulides told Mitsotakis that the aim of his meetings on Thursday is “to create the conditions which will lead to the resumption of substantive negotiations from the point at which they were interrupted” in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana.

“Nicosia and Athens remain in complete coordination, moving steadily towards the common goal which remains unchanged: the resolution of the Cyprus problem,” a government statement said.

That resolution, it said, must be found “on the basis of the UN security council’s resolutions, the principles and values of the EU, and the European acquis Communautaire”.

Of his meeting with Hahn, Christodoulides said he and Hahn had “highlighted the role which the European Union can play as a factor which has political and institutional tools to decisively support the resumption and substantial progress of the process”.

“The EU’s active involvement is not only a strategic choice of the Republic of Cyprus but also a recognition that the solution to the Cyprus problem is a European issue that concerns the cohesion, stability, and security of the entire union,” he said.

In his most recent public statements on the Cyprus problem last month, Mitsotakis said the Greek government’s “positions are clear”, and that “we support efforts to reunify the island as mandated by the United Nations resolutions”.

“Now, it is up to others to prove whether they really mean that they want a process of restarting the talks,” he said, before adding that those talks must take place “within the framework of very clear guidelines determined by the UN security council’s decisions and the overall framework of relations between the European Union and Turkey”.

Earlier, Gerapetritis had said that the election of pro-reunification candidate Tufan Erhurman as Turkish Cypriot leader in October opened “a new chapter of hope and expectations for the island’s reunification”.