President Nikos Christodoulides said on Wednesday morning that the goal is to “create the conditions to announce the resumption of the talks from where they broke off in Crans Montana, as he left for the trilateral meeting with UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman

“That is our goal; step by step, we are seeing positive developments, and we are waiting to see what will happen today, and we will be here to comment on it,” Christodoulides said.

Asked whether further communication with Turkey was expected, Christodoulides pointed to Guterres’ recent phone call with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin’s meeting with the former in Turkey in the previous week.  

“I am not aware of Mr Guterres’ phone conversations, but Turkey is certainly part of this effort,” Christodoulides said.

Media reports said that Turkey had been called during meetings on Tuesday.

Christodoulides also announced that newly appointed EU envoy for the Cyprus problem Raffaele Fitto will arrive on the island on Thursday evening and will meet the president the following morning.

The trilateral meeting follows individual meetings held between the two leaders and Guterres on Tuesday, during which he had reiterated his support for the resumption of talks towards a solution of the Cyprus problem.