Holguin promises tripartite meeting will be ‘of substance’

United Nations envoy Maria Angela Holguin on Tuesday promised that Wednesday’s tripartite meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman will be “of substance”.

Speaking after a one-on-one meeting with Erhurman, she said that on Wednesday, “we are to take a look at both sides’ concerns about the way that we will resume talks”, and added that she is “expectant that tomorrow we will have some news about the confidence-building measures”.

“I hope that the leaders deliver something for the confidence-building measures and continue working,” she said.

Later on Tuesday, Erhurman’s undersecretary Mehmet Dana said that the day’s meeting had “addressed developments since the last tripartite meeting” held last month, as well as “impasses which have emerged regarding confidence-building measures”.

He added that Erhurman had “told Holguin that her remarks following her meeting with the Greek Cypriot leader regarding the enlarged meeting and her reference to the proposed methodology were appropriate”.

“If there is a genuine will for a solution, the first step should be to create an atmosphere which supports this will,” he said, before adding that Erhurman had “conveyed to Holguin that the Turkish Cypriot people are ready to take good-faith and constructive steps in line with their will for a solution”.

He also said that Erhurmann had “emphasised the need for concrete steps to prevent” the entrenchment of “the perception among both Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots of ‘how will two leaders who cannot even agree on opening new crossing points solve the Cyprus problem?’”.

To this end, he said Erhurman had “expressed hope that progress in this direction will be made” on Wednesday, and that the Turkish Cypriot side is “ready to contribute to this process”.

Wednesday’s meeting will be the second of its kind in the space of six weeks, though Holguin had earlier in the day lamented that “not much progress” had been achieved on confidence-building measures between the island’s two sides since then, following a one-on-one meeting with Christodoulides.

Following the previous tripartite meeting, the sides released a joint statement declaring that “the real aim is the solution of the Cyprus problem with political equality as described by the United Nations security council resolutions”.