Christodoulides and Erhürman to hold new meeting under UN auspices in Nicosia

President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman will hold a new meeting on Friday, May 8, in the buffer zone of Nicosia airport. The talks will take place at the residence of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in Cyprus, Colin Stewart, and will be held without media presence.

This will be the second face-to-face meeting of the leaders following the talks held on April 6. At that time, the parties reaffirmed their readiness to support the UN Secretary-General's efforts to promote dialogue on the Cyprus settlement and expressed their commitment to continuing contacts.

According to the UN statement following the April meeting, the leaders discussed confidence-building measures between the island's two communities. An agreement was reached then to hold a new meeting to discuss specific steps and possible joint initiatives.

Following the April talks, Nikos Christodoulides stated that progress had been made on several confidence-building measures and that official announcements could follow in the next phase. Details of possible agreements have not yet been disclosed, but diplomatic sources note that the parties continue to work on humanitarian and technical initiatives.

Preparations for tomorrow's meeting were carried out at the level of negotiation groups. Last week, Greek Cypriot negotiator Menelaos Menelaou and the representative of the Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Dana held separate consultations, during which agenda items and further steps within the dialogue were discussed.

It is expected that the current meeting will be an important indicator of the parties' readiness to continue the negotiation process under UN auspices. Despite persisting differences on key issues of the Cyprus settlement, both sides have recently shown interest in maintaining communication channels and promoting practical confidence-building measures.