President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Wednesday agreed to hold weekly meetings with the aim of achieving the requisite progress for United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to convene an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem.

A joint statement issued at the end of Wednesday’s meeting of the pair at the UN good offices mission in Nicosia’s buffer zone, which lasted for almost three hours, said that both leaders had “agreed to intensify their meetings and to meet once a week and more frequently, as circumstances may require”.

In addition, the joint statement said that both leaders had “reaffirmed their utmost appreciation” to Guterres “for his recent visit to the island and for his continued support and commitment to the efforts towards a settlement of the Cyprus problem”.

“They also agreed to announce the members of the steering committee of the civil society consultative body tomorrow,” on Thursday, it said. 

Christodoulides said while leaving the good offices mission that matters had “begun on a good path”, while Erhurman made no comment when he left the building.

While no explicit progress was made on confidence-building measures between the island’s two sides, it is now hoped that the more frequent leaders’ meetings, following on from Wednesday’s meeting, may produce that progress in the coming weeks and months. 

Following Guterres’ visit to the island last month, Erhurman had called for leaders’ meetings to take place once a week so as to achieve what Guterres had described as “adequate progress” on the matters of confidence-building measures, the meeting’s methodology, and the substance of the talks. Erhurman described the matter as “homework”. 

Guterres’ call for “adequate progress” was followed by UN Cyprus problem envoy Maria Angela Holguin saying that the implementation of confidence-building measures is an “indispensable condition” to be fulfilled ahead of an enlarged meeting, which will be attended by the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the UN.

“Confidence-building measures should not be seen merely as symbolic steps which improve the atmosphere between the two communities, but rather as practical tools which test the viability of a future political order,” she told Turkey’s Anka news agency.  

Chief among those possible confidence-building measures is the possible opening of crossing points between the island’s two sides, on which talks remained deadlocked over the question of whether to break up the package of four locations upon which the sides had agreed last year. 

On this matter, the Greek Cypriot side proposed removing Louroujina, northwest of Larnaca, from the package of four, instead opening crossing points near Athienou, and in the eastern Nicosia suburbs of Mia Milia and Aglandjia, and the Turkish Cypriot side flatly refused to entertain any discussions which did not include all four agreed upon locations.

The matters of crossing points and confidence-building measures more broadly did not feature in the joint declaration, and as such, it is not certain that they were discussed during Wednesday’s meeting.

However, on this front, the Cyprus Mail understands that Erhurman did raise recent political pressure exerted by Greek Cypriot political, sporting, and cultural circles with the aim of bringing about the cancellation of internationally organised events which had been due to take place in the north.

That pressure had succeeded in bringing about the cancellation of a music festival in Kyrenia, with Erhurman saying on this matter last week that “Greek Cypriot diplomacy has been conducting a campaign for some time”.  

“The summary is this: ‘lifting or easing the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots will eliminate their desire for a solution’ and ‘introducing new confidence-building measures will make the status quo comfortable,” he said.

Since then, a coordinated campaign has been initiated with the aim of forcing the cancellation of a children’s football camp licensed by Spanish footballing giant Barcelona, which is also due to take place in the north next month. 

This campaign saw Cyprus Football Association Haris Loizides write to his Spanish counterpart Rafael Louzan, urging him to discourage FC Barcelona from holding the camp, prompting Erhurman to say on Wednesday morning that “as a human being, I cannot accept that the sadness which a Turkish Cypriot young person may experience for this reason should produce joy for any Greek Cypriot”.

Holguin will next return to the island next month, with Christodoulides announcing her imminent arrival before leaving the presidential palace ahead of the meeting, while also saying that on the sidelines of the UN general assembly’s “high-level week” in New York next month, both he and Erhurman will meet Guterres again in separate meetings.

“We will inform him separately appoint the results of these intensive consultations, which … I hope today will be the beginning of intensive and effective consultations, in the direction we agreed when the UN secretary-general was here,” he said.