‘Limited optimism’ ahead of expanded informal meeting

The Cyprus News Agency (CNA) on Wednesday evening reported that ‘competent sources’ had expressed ‘limited optimism’ ahead of the expanded meeting between President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar in New York on Thursday.

According to CNA’s sources, President Christodoulides held a call with EU Special Envoy for Cyprus, Johannes Hahn, on Wednesday morning local time and is expected to meet with Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis at 4pm New York time (11pm local time).

Before the meeting on Thursday morning, the President will meet with Stephen Doughty, the United Kingdom’s Minister of State for Europe.

While the sources said that doubts about the necessity of the expanded meeting had been expressed on the ground that more progress could have been made regarding agreed confidence-building measures at the March meeting in Geneva, they stressed the significance of US Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ efforts in for the conference to go ahead.

According to the sources, the President had briefed the National Council on his recent contacts on Wednesday and was expected to provide further updates after tonight’s dinner hosted by the UN Secretary-General at the UN Headquarters.

During the dinner, Christodoulides will be accompanied by the Greek Cypriot negotiator, Menelaos Menelaou.