Nicosia: The President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, said that progress on certain Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) will be announced after his next meeting with the Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhrman expected to take place by the end of April.
According to Cyprus News Agency, the President of the Republic stated that they had a good meeting and that they discussed substantive issues at length, referring to "all the points my Secretary-General highlighted during our meeting in Brussels-the political will to see concrete developments."
President Christodoulides mentioned that the Secretary-General has a plan in mind and has begun working on its implementation. "We welcome this decision by the Secretary-General and hope to have positive results," he noted. The two leaders exchanged views on confidence-building measures and have instructed their negotiators to finalize whatever can be finalized.
"There is progress, I must mention, on some of these issues, and there will be a meeting around the end of April," he added. When asked about developments expected from the Secretary-General, President Christodoulides said that Guterres has already begun working behind the scenes, aiming for the resumption of talks.
The President of the Republic also addressed queries regarding the preparation of a document by the Secretary-General to launch negotiations. He clarified that the Secretary-General is in contact with all sides, both in Cyprus and abroad, with the aim of resuming the talks. "This willingness on the part of the Secretary-General is something we welcome; it was something we sought, and I am pleased that this specific reference is included today following our mutual agreement in the UN statement," he remarked.
Regarding the issues on which progress has been made, President Christodoulides said that the two leaders have agreed not to publicly detail which ones. "There is progress on some, not all, but on some of the issues that have been raised from time to time-those we proposed and those proposed by the Turkish Cypriot side. Progress has been made, and we have given instructions to the negotiators so that at the next meeting we can announce, in more specific terms, the outcome on some of them," he concluded.
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. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.