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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will participate in an expanded informal meeting on the Cyprus issue hosted by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on March 17-18, 2025, in Geneva.
The meeting aims to facilitate an exchange of views on the future of the Cyprus issue. However, it is not intended to serve as a continuation of past negotiations or as the start of a new negotiation process.
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The meeting will bring together key stakeholders, including:
Fidan last visited the TRNC on Jan. 8-9, 2025, where he met with President Tatar and Prime Minister Unal Ustel. During a joint press conference with Tatar, Fidan reaffirmed Türkiye’s commitment to strengthening solidarity and cooperation with the TRNC.
He also reiterated Türkiye's stance that a two-state solution is the only viable resolution for Cyprus and expressed Türkiye’s readiness to support this approach constructively.
A prior informal meeting on Cyprus took place on Oct. 15, 2024, in New York, hosted by Guterres. The dinner included Tatar and Christodoulides, with discussions centering on the possibility of resuming formal negotiations.
However, a subsequent statement from the U.N. secretary-general’s office confirmed that no common ground had been found for restarting official talks.
During that dinner, it was agreed that a broader informal meeting would be held later, bringing together the two Cypriot leaders along with the foreign ministers of the guarantor states—Türkiye, Greece, and the U.K.
The last major informal attempt to address the Cyprus issue occurred during the 5+U.N. meeting in Geneva on April 27-29, 2021.
During that meeting, the TRNC, under Tatar’s leadership, announced its departure from the long-standing bizonal, bicommunal federation model and introduced a new vision centered on a two-state solution.
Türkiye fully supports this approach, arguing that:
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly called on the international community to recognize the TRNC, raising the issue at the 77th (2022), 78th (2023), and 79th (2024) sessions of the U.N. General Assembly.
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