Christodoulides: All sides supported holding an expanded conference

President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides said that all interested parties had responded positively to UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ initiative to hold an expanded conference on the Cyprus settlement.

According to him, the meetings of the past two days achieved three important results. First, Guterres reaffirmed his commitment to the resolutions of the UN Security Council. Second, the basis of the negotiating process was preserved — all agreements reached before the Crans-Montana conference. Third, all participants agreed with the idea of convening an expanded conference.

Christodoulides noted that the Republic of Cyprus, together with the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy María Angela Holguín and with the support of the European Union, would continue preparations for a new meeting, hoping that it would lead to the official resumption of negotiations.

The President also said that the EU intended to participate more actively in the process. According to him, the President of the European Commission had expressed readiness to establish a legal team to support the EU Special Representative Johannes Hahn.

Speaking about the prospects, Christodoulides stressed that the negotiations would not start from scratch but would continue on the basis of the agreements already reached. He added that he would like the date of the expanded conference to be set now, but considered the outcome of Guterres’ visit to Cyprus an important step towards resuming dialogue.