Discussions between Cyprus’ two sides are underway to organise a new meeting between President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman, with the aim of bringing about the conditions suitable for an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem to be held later this year, the Cyprus Mail has learned.

Presidential press office director Victor Papadopoulos told the Cyprus Mail that the Greek Cypriot side has requested a leaders’ meeting within the month of August, and is now awaiting a response from the Turkish Cypriot side.

Later, deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou told the newspaper that it is planned that the two leaders will “discuss the methodology and record convergences reached” in historical Cyprus problem negotiations, among other matters.

Sources close to Erhurman offered a somewhat different version of events, but told the Cyprus Mail that “as a result of our suggestion at the meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that the leaders meet weekly, both sides are now working with each other to organise a new leaders’ meeting”.

The comments come after Papadopoulos had on Monday said that “anything that can lead us to the goal of resuming talks and resolving the Cyprus problem, the president of the republic is ready to do” in response to a question regarding Erhurman’s earlier suggestion that the pair hold weekly meetings going forward.

Erhurman had earlier in the day renewed his call upon Christodoulides to meet him once a week to complete what he described as the “homework” set by Guterres during his visit to the island.

“What did we say? As we left the meeting, in front of Guterres, we said that we are ready to meet Christodoulides once a week. We also said this in the press conference we held immediately after the meeting,” he said.

Guterres had said after last week’s tripartite meeting that a new enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem will be convened “after adequate progress” is achieved on confidence-building measures, the meeting’s methodology, and the substance of the talks. This is the “homework” to which Erhurman has since referred.

That meeting, also referred to as a “five-plus-one” meeting, will involve the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, and the UN.

Erhurman’s call for weekly meetings echoed an agreement reached by then acting president Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader of the day Rauf Denktash when then UN secretary-general Kurt Waldheim visited the island in August 1974.

At the time, Waldheim described the leaders’ agreement to hold weekly meetings as “a limited step” but acknowledged it as “a very encouraging sign for the future”.