On Sunday 4 June, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced that the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders had agreed to resume their negotiations in June on the reunification of Cyprus.
The Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akinci respectively, and the UN secretary-general "agreed on the need to convene the Conference on Cyprus again in June, in line with the statement from the conference on 12 January", Guterres announced at a meeting in New York. No precise date was announced, however.
"All agreed that the chapter on security and the guarantees have vital importance for both communities", Guterres said, adding that the UN special envoy for Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, would be involved with the participants in the preparation of a joint document to concentrate the discussions on security and the guarantees, according to the results of the earlier meetings of the Conference on Cyprus that took place in Switzerland.
Guterres said that the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders have agreed to continue the bi-community negotiations in Geneva at the same time, as regards all the other outstanding issues – starting with the territory, ownership and governance, and the sharing of power. All these issues will be negotiated inter-dependently and "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed", Guterres said.
He added that he would speak to the participants in the Conference on Cyprus – Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, and the European Union as an observer.
On Tuesday 6 June, the European Commission spokesperson, Margaritis Schinas, hailed the announcement of the resumption of the negotiations, underlining the Commission's commitment, and especially that of its president, Jean-Claude Juncker, "to continuing to be able to help", the reunification process of the island of Cyprus, which was relaunched in May 2015. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)