President Christodoulides and Tufan Erhurman hold bilateral meeting in Nicosia

President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman are meeting today, October 13, at 15:30 in the Nicosia airport area within the buffer zone. This marks their first bilateral encounter following the UN General Assembly sessions in New York, where a planned trilateral meeting did not materialize. The dialogue aims to explore common ground for resuming formal negotiations, which have been stalled since 2017.

President Christodoulides has presented 19 new proposals and emphasizes that a window of opportunity exists, supported by a completed UN convergence document and his own specific planning. He stated he is approaching the discussion with political will to achieve progress. Conversely, Tufan Erhurman has expressed that the agenda will focus on seven confidence-building measures (CBMs) proposed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in late July, noting that the Turkish Cypriot side has already accepted six of them.

While the Greek Cypriot side remains focused on restarting substantive negotiations, the atmosphere remains complex due to ongoing disputes over methodology and the lack of agreement on specific CBMs. There is heightened pressure to make progress before the end of the year, coinciding with the conclusion of Guterres's current term, to avoid further stagnation in the peace process.