The new UNSG Special Advisor Espen Barth Eide has announce that the two leaders in Cyprus, namely President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu have agreed to move to the next phase of structured negotiations.

Eide attended Wednesday the first meeting of the leaders after the summer holidays, following a dinner they had last night at the residence of the UNSG Special Representative on the island Lisa Buttenheim.

Reading a statement to the press, Eide said that the leaders today met in a friendly and constructive atmosphere following their fruitful discussions at dinner last night and they have reviewed the state of play in the talks thus far. He added that they agreed that their negotiators and teams had completed submitting proposals on all issues and recognised the enormous amount of work that had been conducted to conclude the second phase of negotiations.

According to the SASG, the leaders have reaffirmed their commitment to lead the negotiations in an interdependent, results-oriented manner, through a win win approach, with the aim to reach a settlement as soon as possible and hold separate simultaneous referenda thereafter, in order to put an end to the unacceptable status quo, as outlined in the Joint Declaration.

Eide also pointed out the leaders agreed to move to the next phase of structured negotiations and they have instructed their negotiators to enter into active negotiations with a view to bridging the gaps through real negotiation on unresolved core issues and to increase the pace of their meetings.

He also said that the leaders agreed to increase the frequency of their meetings, as appropriate and to hold meeting at least twice per month. Finally the leaders, as he said, would like to thank Ms. Buttenheim for her tireless efforts in facilitating the talks during the past five months as acting Special Advisor to the SG on Cyprus.

Cyprus has been divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion. UN-backed peace talks are currently underway to reunite the country under a federal roof.