Trilateral meeting focuses on governance, property, citizenship, UN official says

NEW YORK/GREENTREE (A.A) - January 24, 2012 - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's special adviser for Cyprus Alexander Downer said that parties focused on governance, property and citizenship in the first day of the trilateral meeting that was held by President Dervis Eroglu of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in Greentree, New York on Monday. Downer informed reporters about the first day talks of the 5th Cyprus trilateral meeting and said that talks would continue on the second day of the meeting. UN Secretary General Ban told Eroglu and Christofias that they should keep "a united Cyprus" vision in their minds, he said. Ban would chair talks between Eroglu and Christofias and host a dinner for the two leaders and their wives on Tuesday, he said. Replying to a question, Downer said that it would be wrong to say that there was not any change in positions of the two parties, stating that they were exchanging views on several different matters. Many issues have been discussed in the first day of the meeting, he said. Responding another question whether he expected an international conference to be held after Greentree talks, Downer said how the second day talks would conclude was important to talk about it. When he was reminded that the Greek Cypriot administration would take over the term presidency of the EU on July 1, Downer said what was important was a sound progress between Eroglu and Christofias. All parties should work to reach an agreement on the Cyprus issue by then, he said. Replying to another question, Downer said that the UN encouraged the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot parties to reach an agreement on the Cyprus issue. "But UN only aims to help the process, not to own or conduct it," he said. The second day of the Greentree talks will also be closed to press corps. UN Secretary General Ban will hold a press conference on talks at the UN headquarters on Wednesday. Eroglu and Christofias so far held four tripartite summit with Ban. First summit took place in New York on November 18, 2010, second and third summits were held in Geneva on January 26 and July 7, 2011, and the fourth summit took place in New York on October 30 and 31, 2011.