Today is a “Cyprus-talks day” for Nikos Christodoulides, whose schedule is filled from early morning until late evening with meetings focused on the next steps in the Cyprus issue.

At the centre of today’s agenda is the first trilateral meeting between Nikos Christodoulides, Tufan Erhürman and the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Cyprus, María Ángela Holguín. The President’s schedule begins at 08:15 with a meeting with the European Commission’s Special Envoy for the Cyprus issue, Johannes Hahn. According to information, the EU envoy will also meet the Turkish Cypriot leader, Tufan Erhürman.

It is worth recalling that during Hahn’s previous visit in June, former Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar declined to meet him, while Erhürman met with him in the north.

As Offsite writes, joint meetings between the President of the Republic and the Turkish Cypriot leader will begin at 15:15, and the two will spend the afternoon together. They will first visit the Committee on Missing Persons and will then hold a joint meeting under the guidance of the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar, at the old Nicosia airport.

At 17:00, the two leaders will attend an informal reception hosted by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of UNFICYP, Colin Stewart.

Following these contacts, Holguín is expected to decide whether preparations should proceed for a new informal five-party conference on the Cyprus issue. It is also possible that today’s trilateral meeting will bring developments regarding confidence-building measures (CBMs) agreed during earlier five-party meetings held in Geneva in March and New York in July.

Both Christodoulides and Erhürman have stated in recent weeks that they remain open to discussing CBMs. Erhürman has repeatedly said that such measures should be discussed in Nicosia rather than at multilateral conferences.

Nikos Christodoulides underlined the significant role of the European Union in efforts to find a settlement to the Cyprus issue, as he welcomed EU Special Envoy Johannes Hahn to the Presidential Palace, reassuring him that if a solution depended solely on him, it would already be achieved.

Specifically, welcoming Hahn in the presence of Deputy Minister for European Affairs Marilena Raouna, the President said, among other things: “We are pleased to have you involved in this renewed effort, and we genuinely hope that my meeting today with the Turkish Cypriot leader, as well as your own contacts—especially now that you will finally meet with him—will open the path for the resumption of talks.

We lost two and a half years, and now it is time to discuss substance. I am going into today’s meeting with the aim of resuming negotiations from where they left off in the summer of 2017. The EU’s involvement—your involvement—can help reopen the path toward restarting talks and ultimately resolving the Cyprus issue.”

For his part, Hahn said: “Indeed, I believe it is time for results. After so many difficult moments, I believe there is now an opportunity—not the last opportunity, but an opportunity.”

He added, addressing President Christodoulides: “Europe is counting heavily on you to build a constructive relationship with the Turkish Cypriot leader, so that the path can open not only for the resumption of talks but also for a final, positive settlement.”

President Christodoulides responded: “Rest assured that if it depended on me, we would already have succeeded.”