President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman had what the UN described as a “fruitful discussion” on Monday, tasking their representatives to continue talks before they meet again at the end of April.

According to Christodoulides, the leaders would be able to announce a conclusion on some of the issues being discussed, while UN chief Antonio Guterres was processing a plan away from the public eye to bring the sides together at the negotiating table once again.

Speaking after the meeting, Christodoulides said they exchanged views on confidence-building measures and asked their negotiators to move forward and finalise as many issues as possible.

“I must say, it was a good meeting. We discussed issues of substance at length, all that which the UN secretary-general pointed out during the meeting we had in Brussels, this political will to see specific developments, he has a plan in mind which he has begun processing in the direction of implementation. We welcome this decision by the secretary-general and we hope there are positive results,” he said.

Guterres, he added, was working on his plan away from the public eye, “so that we can achieve an important – the most important – aim, which is the resumption of negotiations, and this is why all these meetings are taking place”.

Christodoulides said “there is progress on some [issues] and there will be a new meeting around the end of April”.

“We have agreed not to mention publicly on which [issues] specifically” progress has been made, he explained.

“There is progress in some, not all … and we have given instructions to the negotiators so that at the next meeting we will be able to announce more specifically the outcome on some of these,” he added.

The UN chief, he added, was in contact with all sides in Cyprus and abroad with the aim of resuming negotiations.

“We welcome this will on behalf of the secretary-general. It was something we were pursuing and I am glad that a specific mention was made today after the agreement of both of use in the UN announcement,” the president said.

In a statement issued after the meeting, Unficyp said the two leaders met at the residence of the special representative of the secretary-general in Cyprus, Khassim Diagne.

“The meeting took place in a positive atmosphere, and they had a fruitful discussion. They exchanged views on substance and on the way forward,” Unficyp said.

It added that the leaders “welcomed the UN secretary-general’s sustained commitment and engagement on the Cyprus issue” and “reiterated their continued readiness to supporting his efforts”.

“They also reviewed progress achieved on trust-building initiatives. They tasked their representatives to pursue their discussions with the aim of finalising the remaining issues.”