President Anastasiades and President Akinci will meet again on Wednesday in what is the beginning of a series of highly intensive meetings this month.
The two community leaders are expected to hold nine or ten meetings in October, in a bid to complete the negotiations by the year’s end.
What did emerge from their meeting on Tuesday was the possibility of negotiating the complex issue of territory in a third country. Camp David, the US presidential country retreat has been suggested.
“If we record progress, then we will move on to the issue of territory with the possibility that this meeting takes place at a third country…All I have just said are under the condition that satisfactory progress is recorded first,” said Anastasiades.
Some political observers came to believe that the possibility of arriving at a solution to the Cyprus problem had become remote after President Akinci and Turkey were unable to implement a time-table for the talks, during the recent meeting with the UN Secretary-General in New York.
Although relations between the two communities have been considerably warmer since President Akinci was elected by the Turkish Cypriots, a number of key issues have been difficult to resolve, despite the best efforts of negotiators on both sides.
One particular issue is territory and UNSG Special Envoy Eide had left the doorway open for a ‘Camp David’ meeting abroad between Anastasiades and Akinci, to be guided by the UN Secretary-General.
Cyprus Weekly
