President Tufan Erhürman held a bilateral meeting on Tuesday with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres at the Presidency.

President Tufan Erhürman held a bilateral meeting on Tuesday with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres at the Presidency.

The meeting at the Presidency began at 11.45am and concluded at 1.37pm.

Also present at the meeting were Mehmet Dânâ, Undersecretary to the Presidency; Seniha Birand Çınar, Confidence Building Measures and Technical Committees Coordinator; İpek Borman, Adviser on Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs; Ali Tuncay, Turkish Cypriot Co-Chair of the Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage; and Çise Zekai Faruk, Special Assistant to the Undersecretary to the Presidency.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was accompanied by Rosemary DiCarlo, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs; Jean-Pierre Lacroix, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations; María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy on Cyprus; and Khassim Diagne, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).

Prior to the start of the meeting, President Erhürman and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres made brief statements to the press.

Speaking at the meeting, President Erhürman expressed his pleasure at receiving Secretary-General Guterres and his esteemed delegation.  

“It's a great pleasure and honour for me to have you and the esteemed members of your delegation as well," President Erhürman said, adding: "I think you are quite aware of the strong will of the Turkish Cypriot people for a just and lasting solution. We are making every effort to achieve progress on confidence-building measures and we are working on a new and realistic methodology that will help us reach our common objective to do something different this time after the experiences of 2004 and 2017.”

President Erhürman added: “I want to underline, once again, that we strongly support your efforts and we welcome them. Rest assured that we will continue to do our utmost.”

The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, stated that the UN is committed to “doing everything possible to support the two communities in their search for solution,” adding: “We know the solution also depends on Guarantors. We are committed to doing everything we can to create the conditions for the well-being, prosperity, and a solution for both communities. We want to help move things forward. I am delighted to be here, and I thank you very much for your warm welcome."

Following the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. Guterres made a brief statement to members of the press outside the Presidency, stating: “I would just like to say that I came to express my solidarity with the Cypriots and my commitment to helping find a solution -- together with the Cypriots and the Guarantor powers. At the same time, I wanted to see whether confidence-building measures can develop in a way that is beneficial for the well-being and prosperity of the people on both sides. I have had two very constructive meetings with the leaders of the two communities. Thank you.”