Christodoulides and Erhürman agree on a civil society council and religious services across the island

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman met on Wednesday in the UN buffer zone on the grounds of Nicosia’s old airport. The talks were held one-on-one: they began at around 16:15 and ended shortly after 18:00, lasting almost two hours.

The meeting took place at the residence of the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Cyprus, Hasim Diya. The UN said the discussion took place in a positive atmosphere and was productive: the two sides exchanged views on the substance of the issue and on the next steps, and also reaffirmed that they value the Secretary-General’s continued engagement.

The leaders agreed on four specific points. The first is a framework for creating a consultative body through which civil society will be brought into the process. The second is to prepare a plan for holding religious services across the island, initially for six months, with the possibility of an extension.

The third is to continue work on agreed measures against foot-and-mouth disease. The fourth is to establish a subcommittee under the Technical Committee on Economic and Commercial Matters to deal with the names of products already registered as protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications.

This was the first meeting between the two leaders since UN Secretary-General António Guterres visited Cyprus at the end of July. At the time, he said he intended to convene an expanded conference on the Cyprus settlement, but only if sufficient preparations had been made — on confidence-building measures, methodology and substantive content — and he did not name a specific date. Last week, the sides’ negotiators, Menelaos Menelaou and Mehmet Dana, prepared for the current meeting.

The two sides agreed to meet again in the near future.