UNSG’s Personal Envoy for Cyprus, Maria Angela Holguin, said on Friday she is looking forward to a productive meeting with the community leaders, namely Cyprus President, Nikos Christodoulides, and Turkish Cypriot leader, Tufan Erhurman.
Holguin who returned on the island for fresh meetings, met on Friday morning with Erhurman and will be received by President Christodoulides on Saturday morning. The two leaders will also have a joint meeting with Holguin on December 11.
She told the press that she is pleased to be back to the island and congratulated Erhurman for becoming the new leader of the T/c community.
“We have a very good conversation, a very useful conversation. I am glad to host next week the meeting of the two leaders”, she said.
Holguin said that she wants the conversation with the leaders to be “very productive and very concrete”.
She recalled that she was in Amman a few weeks ago and met with young Cypriot people, members of the bicommunal Technical Committee on Youth, with whom she had a very productive meeting.
The UN envoy expressed hope that the people realize that they have to support this effort of the leaders, adding that the leaders have to deliver.
“This is my message and I hope we have a very good and productive week,” she told the press.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results due to Turkish intransigence. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
In 2025 the Secretary-General hosted two informal meetings on Cyprus, in March in Geneva and in July in New York, while a tripartite meeting with the Cyprus leaders was also held in late September, at the end of the UN General Assembly High Level Week. Another informal meeting in broader format is expected to take place.
María Angela Holguín, the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy on Cyprus, is tasked to engage with the parties, while former European Commissioner Johannes Hahn, designated by the Commission as Special Envoy for Cyprus, is also expected to contribute to the settlement process, in cooperation with Holguín.
