The challenge: building common ground through dialogue between the leaders

By Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar

Almost a year ago in Geneva, in March 2025, both sides told the UN Secretary-General that they would commit to trust-building measures, which have yet to show any significant progress. In our last meeting on January 17, 2026, I brought the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders together for a direct conversation, not expecting concrete results, but rather seeking to explore the paths that must be open if negotiations are to start in the medium term. During this meeting, Mr Christodoulides and Mr Erhurman listened to one another; each explained what they hoped for and how they viewed the road towards substantive negotiations. There was frankness and, I believe, the beginning of a relation based on personal trust between them, an indispensable element in any negotiation.

In a conflict that has lasted more than half a century, with many failed negotiations attempts and reconciliation, the leaders must be careful not to subject their societies to new disappointments, which would lead to many more years of inaction.

This year, in particular, begins with a great deal of activity on the island. In the south, the Republic of Cyprus has assumed the presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), which will keep the government very busy coordinating the different issues and meetings that are routinely held in the EU. Parliamentary elections are also coming up in May, creating a political moment that ends up limiting the possibility of significant changes.

In the north, the arrival of a new leader with a different vision, who must coordinate both the internal team in charge of governance and its strong relationship with Turkey, managing positions and priorities, also makes the upcoming months a complicated period to achieve major changes in the dialogue process.

Engaging with protracted conflicts with any chance of success requires delicate preparation and extensive prior work. This helps situations mature and visions of the future take shape, so that each side can understand the other’s position, its priority interests, its fears, and its needs. This is precisely what began in the latest meeting between the two leaders, and it is what will give the process more chances of moving forward.

During this joint meeting, the idea emerged that the two sides could speak directly to one another without the UN as an intermediary. This is in itself a major step forward. Each side needs to understand the other better so that they can make decisions in which both contribute to mutually beneficial solutions. The dynamic of merely applying pressure and blaming the other – or a third party – for the lack of progress, clearly serves no one.

In the coming months, it will be time to build a different model of interaction, one in which decisions help demonstrate a genuine interest in resuming negotiations, so that both communities can see that their leaders are willing to change the status quo for the benefit of all.

The leaders need time for ideas to ferment and for their respective internal processes to unfold. On one side, there are parliamentary elections and the presidency of the Council of the European Union; on the other, the consolidation of the new leadership, with all that this entails. Both leaders must continue meeting to make small joint decisions, and to explore ideas and viable pathways to restart a more formal negotiation process in the best possible way, beginning in July.

In the coming months, I intend to continue promoting rapprochement between key groups from both communities, so that they can meet, share their visions and their fears, and exchange ideas about how best to live together on their shared island. This is what we did with the Technical Committee on Youth during a retreat held last December in Amman, and with a group of prominent Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot academics in Paphos a few weeks ago. Next week, we will bring together the co-chairs of the Technical Committees in London. I hope that we can organise more meetings of this kind in the future. It is encouraging to see that these meetings generate not only ideas for a common vision of the island, but also engines of social activation, which in turn create more possibilities to pursue constructive change based on a shared effort.

I will return to the island in a few months, when I see that I can contribute to a specific step forward and the leaders consider that the UN’s presence is useful to facilitate decision-making. The time will come to take concrete steps that allow both sides to enter a new stage of negotiations. As in all complex processes, more preparation means greater chances of achieving positive and lasting results in the final stage. That is the immediate challenge.

Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar is the personal envoy of the UN secretary-general on Cyprus