The leaders of the two communities in Cyprus, President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, will hold a new meeting on Monday, in the framework of the UN- led Cyprus talks.
T/C Leader Mustafa Akinci (L)-Esper Barth Eide(M)-Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades
UNSG`s Special Advisor for Cyprus Espen Barth Eide will participate “facilitating the leaders’ meeting, as the leaders progress in the ongoing substantive negotiations on all unresolved core issues”, a press release by UNFICYP said.
In a statement after their previous meeting on the 17th of June, Eide had said that “with strong determination, and driven by their joint commitment,” the two leaders “pursued their goal of reaching a comprehensive settlement as soon as possible.”
He added that “upon completing the baseline assessment, the leaders are now entering into substantive negotiations on unresolved core issues. The leaders agreed that these negotiations will be the centerpiece of their work from now on and that they will be dealt with in a holistic and interdependent manner”.
Therefore, he added, “Mr. Anastasiades and Mr. Akıncı have tasked their negotiators to focus their work on a specific set of core issues across chapters. They will work intensively on this task and report back to the next leaders’ meeting to be held on 29 June 2015.”
Eide said that the leaders also reviewed the implementation of those confidence building measures that were previously announced and that Akıncı and Anastasiades continued their work on further confidence-building measures in parallel to the negotiation process.
Eide will remain in Cyprus until Thursday, July 2, to continue his contacts with key interlocutors. In the course of his stay on the island, he will also chair the joint negotiators’ meetings which will be held following the leaders’ meeting.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. UN-led talks, aiming to reunite the island under a federal roof, resumed on May 15, this year.
