UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will pay a two-day visit to Cyprus on July 27-28, 2026, the Cyprus Mail reported on July 16, citing informed sources. He will hold separate meetings with President Nikos Christodoulides and the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, Tufan Erhurman, and then meet with both of them together.
Guterres will be accompanied by his deputies Rosemary Dicarlo, who oversees political issues, and Jean—Pierre Lacroix, who is responsible for peacekeeping operations. The program of the visit also includes meetings with members of bicommunal technical committees and non-governmental organizations.
The Secretary General’s trip is being prepared at the peak of diplomatic activity around the Cyprus settlement. Guterres’ Personal Envoy, Maria Angela Holguin, previously confirmed that an expanded meeting on the Cyprus problem is planned to be convened in late July or early August in the 5+1 format, with the participation of the island’s two communities, the three guarantor powers (Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom) and the United Nations. According to the Cyprus Mail, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also approved the new initiative.
Will they hold an extended meeting on Cyprus this summer?
On July 15, Christodoulides made it clear that an informal extended meeting could take place as early as the summer, despite leaks from Athens and Ankara to the contrary. “There is a lot of progress, and there will be news soon,” the president said, announcing announcements about the next steps. The previous extended Cyprus meeting was held on July 16-17, 2025, and since then the negotiation process has not been formally resumed. Erhurman, for his part, confirmed his support for Guterres’ efforts on July 2, but insists on fulfilling his “four-point methodology” as a condition for returning to the negotiating table.
Nicosia links Turkey’s European path with progress on Cyprus
As the Cyprus Times notes in an analytical article, the optimism of the Greek Cypriot side concerns the process, not the substance: the prerequisites for a meeting with a guaranteed result are not yet visible, since Ankara officially continues to promote a two-state solution and “sovereign equality” — it is with this position that many years of stagnation are associated. Nicosia considers Turkey’s willingness to discuss the issue with other participants, the UN and the European Union to be a positive signal. Christodoulides’ bet now is to involve the EU more actively in the process and link Turkey’s European perspective with progress on the Cyprus issue. Guterres also follows the same logic, according to the publication: he coordinates steps with Brussels and wants to see the European Union at the negotiating table.
What will the coming weeks decide for the Cyprus settlement?
Cyprus Times diplomatic sources call the coming weeks crucial: they will show the real intentions of all parties. The current activity of contacts creates a positive background, but without a convergence of positions on basic issues, the next phase of the process will not receive content. Meanwhile, the Greek Cypriot side insists that the moment of increased attention of the international community to Cyprus should not be missed. Nicosia considers maintaining momentum to be critically important, even though, according to the government, there are no conditions for a full—fledged restart of negotiations yet.
https://lenta.cy/guterrish-letit-na-kipr-vizit-genseka-oon-mozhet-stat-proryvom-v-peregovorah/
