Erhürman and Christodoulides fail to agree on new confidence-building measures

TRNC President Tufan Erhürman and Republic of Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides met in the buffer zone on 9 September, but failed to agree on new confidence-building measures. The next round is scheduled for 17 September.

The meeting took place at the residence of the UN Secretary-General’s representative in the buffer zone; it began at 10:30 and lasted about an hour. The leaders spoke one-on-one, having agreed to meet the previous day.

The main topics were confidence-building measures and the methodology for further negotiations. According to Erhürman, a significant part of the discussion focused on new measures, agreement on which could not be reached, as well as external and internal initiatives undermining even the trust that already exists.

“If we want to move the process forward, it is important to create the favourable climate Mr Guterres spoke about. To do this, we must both implement new confidence-building measures and refrain from steps that destroy trust,” Erhürman said.

UN Secretary-General’s representative Maria Angela Holguin did not attend the meeting. Erhürman said that, due to illness, she would not be able to return to the Cyprus process before the start of the UN General Assembly, so the next meeting on 17 September at 11:00 will also take place without her.