President Ersin Tatar and the Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides met today in the buffer zone to discuss the issue of crossing points.

The meeting held at the residence of the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Cyprus and Head of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus lasted for two hours.

Monday’s meeting, the first between the leaders in 2025 took place at the United Nations’ Chief of Mission’s residence in the buffer zone, with the participation of Colin Stewart, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Cyprus and Head of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.

Today’s meeting was a follow-up of the informal dinner hosted by the Secretary-General in New York on October 15 last year.

The meeting focused on the opening of new crossing points between the two sides.

A short statement issued by the UN after the meeting said that both leaders had a constructive and open discussion.

“The leaders both believe that the opening of crossing points is critical to promote people-to-people contacts, strengthen economic ties and build trust. These efforts aim to generate tangible socio-economic benefits across the island, creating opportunities and improving livelihoods for the benefits of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots,” the statement read.

The UN statement also stated that the two leaders had the opportunity to exchange views and other ideas.

It said that the two leaders who were convinced that opening new crossing points would also contribute to the creation of a conducive climate ahead of the informal meeting in a broader format and that they had instructed their negotiator and special representative to continue discussions and to meet again in the coming days.