President Nikos Christodoulides is meeting on Thursday with the new Turkish Cypriot leader, Tufan Erhurman, for their first official encounter.
The meeting is taking place at 9.30am at the residence of the United Nations secretary-general’s special representative, Hasim Diyan, near Nicosia airport.
In statements on Tuesday, President Christodoulides said he hoped the talks would produce concrete results that could lead to the resumption of negotiations on the Cyprus issue. He specifically referred to continuing discussions from where they were left at Crans-Montana.
“I hope, and with this expectation I go to the meeting, that there will be concrete positive outcomes towards resuming talks from where they were interrupted at Crans-Montana. This is the sole objective, and I go there hoping there will be a response so we can immediately start this major effort,” he said.
“We are fully prepared and, I repeat, I hope there will be a response from the other side so that negotiations can begin as soon as possible.”
The meeting marks the first engagement between the new Turkish Cypriot leadership and the Cypriot president.