Next enlarged Cyprus meeting ‘when conditions are ripe’, Gerapetritis says

The next enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem will take place “when conditions are ripe”, Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis said.

Speaking after a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, he said that “when conditions are ripe and there is some tangible development on the issues we have before us today and which have to do with the confidence-building measures, then there will be a new meeting”.

He added that the Cyprus issue is “very high on [Guterres’] agenda”, and said that it is “an issue which hurts international legitimacy”.

“It is important that it be possible to find a solution for the benefit of Cyprus, but also for the benefit of international security,” he said.

Greece, alongside fellow guarantor powers Turkey and the United Kingdom, would be party to an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem were it to be convened, though no date has yet been set for such a meeting to take place.

UN envoy in Cyprus Maria Angela Holguin said after a tripartite meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Wednesday that “for the time being, there will be no new enlarged meeting”.

For such a meeting to be arranged, she said, “we need results on the confidence-building measures”.

She added that “I am waiting for something more”, before responding to a question over whether Christodoulides and Erhurman had responded to the demand for more progress she had made on Tuesday by saying “I think they might. Not yet”.

Later on Wednesday, it was reported that Guterres had been “seriously disturbed” by the lack of progress achieved on the Cyprus problem since the previous tripartite meeting, which had taken place last month.

According to the reports, Guterres had “emphasised that the Cypriot leaders must urgently take steps to facilitate life between the two communities” in the form of confidence-building measures.

It was also reported that he had instructed Holguin to “tell the leaders that if no steps are taken on confidence-building measures, I will absolutely not convene an enlarged meeting” after Wednesday’s tripartite meeting.

Holguin had on Wednesday insisted that she is “not disappointed” in the lack of results from her latest visit to the island, while Christodoulides also denied being disappointed in the ostensible lack of progress.

He went on to say that “the discussion will continue”, and that Erhurman had “expressed his readiness to meet without Holguin being present if she is not in Cyprus”.

“We will not wait for her to return,” he said.

Erhurman, meanwhile, said that “the atmosphere of trust was not at the desired level” between the island’s two sides, and said that as such, he had told Holguin that holding an enlarged meeting “would therefore be meaningless at this stage”.

He closed his remarks by saying that Wednesday’s meeting had been “useful but not very productive”.