President Ersin Tatar met with the Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides on Monday evening at an event at Ledra Palace hosted by the UN peacekeeping mission in Cyprus (UNFICYP), in what was the two leaders’ first meeting since last July.

First to arrive at the end-of-year dinner hosted by UNFICYP chief and UN Special Representative Colin Stewart was Christodoulides, who arrived with his wife Philippa Karseras followed shortly by Tatar and his wife Sibel Tatar.

Stewart welcomed the two leaders, and all three took a picture together.

Speaking at the ceremony, Stewart said that the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is set to announce the UN envoy expected to come on the Cyprus problem.

“The secretary-general sees the appointment as crucial,” he said.

He added: “It does not signal, of course, the start of new negotiations, but it is an important step in trying to see if a path can be found for a mutually-acceptable way forward, and it will certainly increase the focus on the Cyprus issue over the coming months.”

The UN Special Representative said that in the meantime the UN was set to continue to work with the two sides to increase cooperation and improve the climate, which he added was essential, among other things to support the efforts of the envoy.

He said that they had been preparing the ground in their regular weekly meetings that they were holding with the Greek Cypriot Negotiator Menalaos Menalaou and the recently appointed Turkish Cypriot Special Representative, Güneş Onar.

“I am pleased to tell you that we have seen an unprecedented surge in activity in the committees, with the two sides agreeing on 7 new projects just in the past few weeks,” he said.

In his concluding remarks, Stewart acknowledged that the region was going through very difficult times, and that conflicts that were thought to be frozen had turned out to be more volatile.

“In Cyprus, people sometimes say this is a frozen conflict, but as long as there is dissatisfaction with the status quo, which there should be, we cannot assume things will remain stable. At the same time, there are some positive developments in the region, in particular between Greece and Türkiye who are actively pursuing a bilateral rapprochement. This is very encouraging, and I believe that developments such as these could set an example and also help create some positive momentum on the island,” he said.

The last time the two leaders met was on July 28, when both visited the anthropological laboratory at the committee of missing persons (CMP).

Monday’s meeting took place at a time when the UN is expected to announce the next envoy for the Cyprus problem, pegged to be former Colombian foreign minister Maria Cuellar.

Earlier on Monday, Tatar green lighted the appointment of Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar as the new UN envoy to Cyprus.