Holguin still hopeful of Cyprus talks resumption

The UN chief’s special envoy for Cyprus, Maria Angela Holguin said on Monday she would “keep working and hoping for the resumption of negotiations” for a solution of the Cyprus problem.

Holguin was speaking after a meeting in the north with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, with whom she said she discussed the process and the forthcoming meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“That is why I came here, to prepare and to report back to the secretary-general,” she told reporters.

Holguin and Tatar also discussed the bicommunal technical committees and their importance in bringing people together for the future.

“This is what the committees do and they do it very well,” she added.

The UN envoy will on Tuesday meet the technical committee on youth, which she said the two leaders strongly supported. This, she said, is “positive”.

Holguin will also meet the chamber of commerce and the negotiators of each side, and visit cemeteries to get a firsthand look at the work being done.

Holguin met President Nikos Christodoulides on Friday.

Her meetings in Cyprus took place ahead of a planned trilateral meeting involving Christodoulides, Tatar and Guterres in New York during the UN’s “high-level week” in September.