Antonio Guterres heads to Cyprus in push to restart reunification talks

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is due in Cyprus on Monday for meetings aimed at reviving reunification talks that collapsed in 2017.

UN envoy Maria Angela Holguin said after meeting Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides that Guterres wanted to encourage Cypriots and their leaders to return to negotiations.

Guterres is scheduled on Tuesday to meet Christodoulides and Tufan Erhurman separately on either side of the ceasefire line, followed by a joint dinner. A trilateral meeting is planned for Wednesday.

The visit follows elections in Turkish-speaking northern Cyprus in October, when pro-unification candidate Erhurman won against Ankara-backed outgoing president Ersin Tatar. AFP reported that it is the first visit to Cyprus by a UN chief since Ban Ki Moon in 2010.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded the north of the island in response to a coup in Nicosia backed by Greece's then-military junta. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, declared in 1983, is recognised only by Ankara.

Turkey has opposed unification efforts, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan instead calling for the coexistence of two states on the island. Decades of UN-backed talks have failed to reunify Cyprus.