Christodoulides takes new proposals to New York to try to unblock Cyprus talks

Politics Cyprus problemNikos ChristodoulidesTop NewsTufan Erhurman Christodoulides takes new proposals to New York to try to unblock Cyprus talks Meeting Of The Two Leaders 1536x803 Relevant News Christodoulides takes new proposals to New York to try to unblock Cyprus talks 18 September 2026 Anastasiades’s law firm: no chance to respond to money laundering, influence-trading findings 18 September 2026 Lightning strike destroys Paphos café as storms batter the district 18 September 2026 Andreas Bimbishis 18 September 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber President Nikos Christodoulides will take new proposals for restarting the Cyprus problem to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York next Thursday. A first round of discussion on the proposals took place on Wednesday, when Christodoulides met Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Cypriot soil. Nicosia believes that if Erhurman accepts the president’s proposals, it would give the process a push forward. What appears to worry Christodoulides is how the Turkish Cypriot leader will respond, given conduct that Nicosia regards as anything but positive up to now. Meeting the UN Secretary-General directly could also help move things along, given that Guterres will separately see Erhurman. Both Nicosia and the United Nations recognise that a positive response from Erhurman alone will not be enough; Ankara will also need to play its part. Christodoulides and Erhurman meet on Cypriot soil Wednesday’s meeting came ahead of separate talks each leader will hold in New York next week with Guterres and with his personal envoy, Maria Angela Holguin. Speaking after the meeting, Christodoulides described it as “a good meeting, as recorded in the United Nations’ own communiqué. I put forward new ideas on all three issues – confidence-building measures, substance and methodology. The Turkish Cypriot leader reserved his position to study them; there was no negative stance.” On some points, he added, “further clarifications were requested, which I explained.” He said he would set out these ideas, together with further material his side has prepared, to both the Secretary-General and to Holguin, whom he will meet before seeing Guterres, and that he considered them proposals capable of leading to positive developments “as soon as possible.” Asked for more detail on the proposals, Christodoulides said he wanted to brief the Secretary-General first, and was also awaiting Erhurman’s final response; he would discuss the ideas with Holguin and Guterres before informing the Cypriot public. “These new ideas across the three areas can genuinely, I believe, lead to positive developments,” he said. Asked whether progress could come as early as next week, Christodoulides said that would depend on the final responses to the proposals. “If there is the necessary political will, these are ideas that could lead to developments as soon as next week,” he said, adding: “I can speak for our own side – we are fully ready.” He said some of the proposals touch on the European Union dimension, with the Greek Cypriot side working towards positive developments there too. Erhurman: “no trilateral or 5+1 meeting on the agenda” Erhurman travels to New York on September 23 for separate meetings with Guterres and Holguin, where he said he expects substantive discussion on a roadmap for continuing the process. Speaking after his meeting with Christodoulides, which he described as “better than the previous one,” Erhurman confirmed there is no trilateral meeting planned between the two leaders and the Secretary-General, nor a 5+1 meeting. “There was nothing like that on the agenda anyway,” he added. Christodoulides’s New York schedule According to an announcement from the Presidency, Christodoulides will begin his engagements on the evening of Sunday, September 20, with a meeting with the heads of Cypriot diaspora organisations, briefing them on developments in the Cyprus problem. On September 21 at 1:15pm New York time, he will meet King Abdullah II of Jordan. That afternoon he will take part in a summit co-hosted by European Council President António Costa and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on multilateralism, international law, peace and prosperity. On Tuesday, September 22, he will attend the opening of the General Assembly plenary, where the Secretary-General will present his annual report. That afternoon he will meet Javier la Rosa, head of base assets and emerging countries at Chevron, followed at 6pm New York time by a meeting with Holguín. On Wednesday, September 23, at around 12:30pm New York time, Christodoulides will address the UN General Assembly plenary. He will then take part in a UN Secretary-General-convened High-Level Summit on climate change, where he will deliver an intervention, before meeting ExxonMobil vice-president John Ardill that afternoon. On the morning of Thursday, September 24, he will attend a working breakfast organised by the Antenna Group and the Atlantic Council on “Strengthening EU-Gulf cooperation for regional security and prosperity.” At 10:55am New York time, he will meet Guterres at the Secretary-General’s office in the UN building, and will then host a lunch for the permanent representatives of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. On the morning of September 25, Christodoulides will meet Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng, followed by representatives of the AJC. Before leaving New York, he will attend a dinner held in his honour by Cypriot diaspora organisations. He will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, Government Spokesperson Constantinos Letymbiotis and negotiator Menelaos Menelaou, and is due back in Cyprus on the evening of September 26. Kombos to hold dozens of meetings Foreign Minister Kombos will hold dozens of meetings over the coming week. Diplomatic sources told Phileleftheros that by Wednesday afternoon, 35 bilateral meetings with counterparts from UN member states had already been confirmed. Meetings are scheduled with African countries including Algeria, Morocco, Kenya, Botswana, Senegal, Rwanda, Mauritania and Tanzania; Middle Eastern countries including Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Lebanon; Central Asian countries including Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan; and other Asian countries including India, the Philippines and the Maldives, the sources said. They said the meetings reflect geographic planning, alongside consideration of which of these countries belong to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, as well as the Turkic states of Central Asia. The sources added that, following a Cypriot initiative, a high-level meeting of Europe’s smaller states – Cyprus, Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Monaco and San Marino – will be co-organised with Andorra at Cyprus’s UN permanent mission, with cooperation among the small states also covering Council of Europe matters and the issues of property and missing persons. They also said two trilateral meetings will be held with Egypt and Jordan, while Kombos will take part in a series of multilateral meetings, including the EU’s informal Foreign Affairs Council with guests from Asian countries, a ministerial discussion on the Middle East chaired by Qatar’s foreign minister and EU High Representative Kaja Kallas, ministerial meetings on the Middle East and the two-state solution and on rising sea levels, and an informal meeting between EU foreign ministers and their CELAC counterparts. Contacts with UN secretary-general candidates Alongside this New York visit, Nicosia has for some time been holding a series of contacts with possible successors to Guterres, as the process to choose a new UN Secretary-General approaches a critical stage. Further contacts may take place, either with the two candidates already met or with others, in the context of a social gathering being held in New York. 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