FM Fidan to attend informal Cyprus meeting in Geneva under UN auspices

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.

Participants in informal meeting

The meeting will bring together key stakeholders, including:

• U.N. Secretary-General Guterres
• President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Ersin Tatar
• Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides
• Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan
• Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis
• U.K. Minister of State for Europe and North America Stephen Doughty

Fidan’s recent visit to TRNC

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.

Previous informal talks on Cyprus issue

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.

Background on Cyprus dispute

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:

• Decades of negotiations based on a federal model have failed to produce a lasting solution.
• Cyprus already consists of two distinct peoples and two separate states.
• Formal negotiations should only begin once the international community acknowledges the inherent rights of Turkish Cypriots, including sovereign equality and equal international status.

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.