Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis met the United Nations’ Cyprus problem envoy Maria Angela Holguin in New York, the Greek foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Neither Gerapetritis, nor Holguin made statements after the meeting.

The meeting comes amid heightened diplomatic traffic on the Cyprus problem in New York, with President Nikos Christodoulides already having met Holguin earlier this week, and Holguin also expected to meet Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman.

Additionally, both Cypriot leaders will meet UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres later this week, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan having met Guterres on Tuesday.

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Erdogan also met British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who, in turn, later met Christodoulides.

Holguin said after her meeting with Christodoulides that the UN is “continuing its efforts” on the Cyprus problem, but despite the ongoing diplomatic traffic, there has been no concrete progress made on the Cyprus problem since Guterres visited the island in July. 

Then, he had promised to hold an enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem on the Cyprus problem, involving the island’s two sides, its three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, and the UN, “after adequate progress” is achieved on confidence-building measures, the meeting’s methodology and the substance of the talks.

Christodoulides and Erhurman have met on three separate occasions since July, but no concrete progress has been achieved in that time, with the sides still in open disagreement over the meaning of political equality, crossing points, and the methodology of the talks. 

Erhurman warned Christodoulides against ‘undermining trust’

In addition, throughout the summer, initiatives had been taken by the Greek Cypriot side to cancel international events being held by the Turkish Cypriot community, including a children’s football camp organised by FC Barcelona and a music festival in Kyrenia.

This prompted Erhurman to warn that such initiatives “undermine trust” between the island’s two sides, stressing last week that “if we wish to move the process forward, it is crucial to create the ‘conducive climate’ mentioned by Guterres”.

Nonetheless, Christodoulides on Monday said that “behind-the-scenes” meetings in New York this week may hold the key to developments occurring on the Cyprus problem.  

“What I can tell you is that I did indeed mention that we are not ruling out positive developments, because, from the moment we arrived here, we have observed numerous meetings, which I would characterise as behind the scenes, or out of the public eye,” he said. 

Those meetings, he said, are “aimed at creating the conditions this week, with all involved parties present in New York, for positive developments to occur”.

Erhurman, meanwhile, stressed that the Turkish Cypriot side is seeking “a five-plus-one meeting where success is guaranteed in advance through preparatory meetings in Nicosia and negotiations which, in line with our people’s will for a solution, will actually lead us to a resolution this time”, with “five-plus-one” another term for an enlarged meeting.

He said that his stance on the prospect of holding such a meeting “echoes the secretary-general’s statements, expressed both after Crans-Montana – that ‘this time must be different’ – and at his recent press conference – that ‘the mistakes of the past must not be repeated’”.