An informal meeting on Cyprus began in Geneva on Tuesday, with the UN chief seeking “common ground” for the resumption of talks to find a lasting solution to the decades-old dispute.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres held separate meetings with the leaders of the Turkish and Greek Cypriots.
Ersin Tatar, president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), called his meeting with Guterres “productive,” and said his side conveyed its views on the dispute to the UN chief.
“Guterres knows the Cyprus issue well. Now he will discuss the issue with the other side. We will discuss the issue intensively tomorrow and the day after,” Tatar said.
Alessandra Vellucci, UN Information Service (UNIS) spokeswoman in Geneva, said that “the informal 5+1 Meeting on Cyprus in Geneva” had begun with a bilateral meeting between Guterres and Tatar.
Those talks were followed by a meeting between Guterres and Nicos Anastasiades, leader of the Greek Cypriot administration, at Geneva’s Intercontinental Hotel, not far from the UN’s European headquarters.
The UN chief hosted a reception for the heads of delegations later in the evening.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, and UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab are leading the delegations of the guarantor countries.