UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said that he plans to convene a new 5+1 meeting on the Cyprus issue aimed at creating the conditions for a successful outcome.
Speaking at a news conference in New York on Friday, Guterres said his recent visit to Cyprus highlighted the urgency of finding a solution amid growing regional instability.
"My visit to Cyprus showed that in a rapidly changing and increasingly volatile region, the search for solutions is more urgent than ever.
"Based on our discussions on the way forward, I decided that I would convene another 5+1 meeting, after adequate preparations on confidence building, methodology and substance, taking into account the convergences already achieved," Guterres said.
“5+1” meeting would include both the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) president and the Greek-administered Southern Cyprus leader, plus the foreign ministers of the island’s three guarantor countries – Türkiye, Greece, and the United Kingdom – and the UN’s Guterres.
Guterres said the UN would work with both sides and the guarantor countries to create the conditions for the meeting’s success.
Asked what he meant by "adequate preparation" for a new five-party-plus-one meeting, Guterres said previous attempts had failed because they were not sufficiently prepared.
"Exactly that. I mean, we had several meetings of the 5+1 that were not able to reach conclusions because they had not been well prepared," he said.
"This time we need to prepare well for the next meeting to make sure that it leads to a solution," Guterres added.
The dispute
Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.
In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.
It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece, and the UK.
The Greek-administered Southern Cyprus entered the EU in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.
