President Nikos Christodoulides on Thursday said that there is now “intense mobility” underway on the Cyprus problem “for the first time in many years”, as he addressed the morning’s cabinet meeting.

“The presence of the [United Nations] secretary-general in Cyprus was not at all accidental. It was the result of a systematic effort which we started in March 2023,” he said, referring to the time at which he was sworn in as president.

He then highlighted that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had during his visit to Cyprus this week said that he had “obtained consent from all parties involved to convene an enlarged meeting”, with the island’s two sides and its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom all set to attend.

Additionally, he pointed out that Guterres had stressed that the next enlarged meeting must “have results”, and, echoing the words of Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman, Christodoulides said that the enlarged meeting cannot be “an enlarged meeting for the sake of it”.

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“The most important thing, however, I believe, is that we hear the secretary-general for the first time talking about convergences reached in negotiations – publicly, in fact – and negotiations on the basis of these convergences,” he said.

He added that this issue had been discussed both in his meeting with Guterres at the presidential palace on Tuesday, and in the tripartite meeting held with Guterres and Erhurman on Wednesday.

“These convergences answer many other questions in relation to the form of solution, what we are discussing, and so on – issues about which there was doubt before the secretary-general arrived, and before the secretary-general made statements,” he said.

As such, he said, “in addition to his reference to the UN’s parameters, I consider his reference to the convergences to be a particularly important public statement, as it answers questions which existed in the past”.

He then pointed out the “new initiative” undertaken by Guterres this year with the aim of bringing about a resumption of negotiations, and said that with the aim of aiding this, “something we sought from the beginning, which is now accepted, is the role of the EU in this effort”.

The EU’s role in the matter, he said, will take two forms. “One concerns the content of the solution, and the other concerns relations between Europe and Turkey and what Turkey wants”.

In line with this, he said, the European Commission’s Cyprus problem envoy will hold meetings with both himself and with Erhurman on Friday, “so that we can see how we are progressing”.

He added that the Greek Cypriot side’s “preparatory work” will “continue throughout August”.

“We have defined the framework in which we will move. The negotiated convergences are what will determine the outcome of the enlarged meeting, so that we can achieved the goal of resuming the talks, and this is what the secretary-general was referring to on the matter of ‘methodology’,” he said.

To this end, he said that “we consider it feasible as soon as possible to convene this enlarged meeting to announce the resumption of talks”.