French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said he hopes for a solution to the Cyprus problem “so that all Cypriots can live together on a reunified island”.

Speaking after the signing of a strategic partnership between the governments of France and Cyprus, he said he wished to “reiterate … how strongly France supports the United Nations’ mediation efforts for a just, comprehensive, and lasting settlement of the Cyprus issue”.

Such a settlement, he said, must be found “in accordance with the parameters agreed upon at the United Nations and compatible with the acquis communautaire” of the European Union.

To this end, he said he “welcomed” last week’s tripartite meeting attended by UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin, President Nikos Christodoulides, and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman.

“I hope these discussions will allow inter-Cypriot negotiations to resume quickly with a view to a just and lasting solution. You have my full support for these initiatives,” he said.

He then told Christodoulides that “I have always seen you as a man of dialogue, of responsibility, with much courage”, and stressed that France “has a clear position” on the Cyprus problem.

Christodoulides, Erhurman, and Holguin spent more than three and a half hours in discussions last Thursday, with the UN saying after the meeting that it had included a “stocktaking discussion on previously agreed trust building initiatives”, as well as a discussion on new ideas.

“They agreed to concentrate on achieving new agreements as soon as possible, especially on the issue of the opening of new crossing points, the halloumi issue and the construction of pipelines from the Mia Milia water treatment plant,” it said.

It added that the pair also “agreed to increasing the staff for services required at the crossing points” and welcomed the European Union-funded works to widen the Ayios Dhometios crossing point in western Nicosia, while also “looking forward to its completion in the coming months”.

“Both leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to participate in the next informal meeting in a broader format to be convened by the UN Secretary-General [Antonio Guterres],” it said, in reference to a planned enlarged meeting involving the island’s two sides, the UN and its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

However, the question of when such a meeting will take place remains unresolved.

Christodoulides has said he would be ready as early as “next week” to participate in an enlarged meeting, and while no date for such a meeting has yet been decided, he set expectations high for an agreement to be found on a date from Holguin’s trips to Greece and Turkey in the days which were to follow.

“You understand that after these meetings and in particular the meeting with [Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan], we will be able to talk more specifically about the date of this enlarged meeting,” he said.

However, while Erhurman expressed his willingness to make progress on the Cyprus problem, his belief is that progress should be made in advance of an enlarged meeting, and not only through it.

He called a press conference after the tripartite and stressed that the next enlarged meeting “must be an innovative and meaningful process”.

To this end, he said that while the tripartite had seen “small advances”, the achievements were “not sufficient to create an environment conducive to comprehensive negotiations”.