UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said “We have not yet found enough common ground yet. But I do not give up. My agenda is simple: to fight for the security and wellbeing of the Cypriots, who deserve to live in peace and prosperity together,” following talks at the Informal 5+1 meeting on Cyprus helped in Geneva.
“We will not give up. We will continue with our consultations to create the best possible conditions for the next meeting, which could happen in the next 2 to 3 months” he said.
His comments come after the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus(TRNC) President Ersin Tatar made his six-point proposal to U.N. Secretary-General Guterres for a sustainable settlement to the decades-long Cyprus dispute.
“The Turkish Cypriot proposal is aimed at establishing a cooperative relationship between the two States on the island based on their inherent sovereign equality and equal international status,” says the proposal.
It underlines that the Turkish Cypriot side did not come to this point overnight, “but after decades of long arduous negotiations that have ended in failure, having definitively exhausted all prospects for a bi-communal and bi-zonal federal settlement.”
Tatar’s document calls for “results-oriented, time-framed” negotiations for a lasting solution after the equal status and sovereign equality of the two states on the island is secured.
“I said many things have changed, the context and conditions have changed,” said Tatar, recounting the island’s violent history in the 1960s, the 2004 Annan plan as well as the failure of the Crans-Montana talks in 2017.
Guterres explained that both sides now held different positions on a way forward for the island saying: “They believe that efforts to negotiate the bi-zonal or bi-communal federation have been exhausted.”
“The solution in their view should be based on two states cooperating with each other.
“The position expressed yesterday by the Greek Cypriot delegation was that negotiations should resume from where they left off in Crans Montana.”
According to the Greek Cypriot administration, the negotiations “should aim to achieve a settlement based on a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation with political equality on the basis of relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” added Guterres.
Talks were expected to continue today(April 29)but have ended this morning, British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said “This week’s informal #CyprusSettlement talks have concluded. No common ground yet to proceed to formal negotiations, but welcome commitment by all sides to meet again in the near future. The UK will continue to work with all parties to seek a fair and lasting settlement.”