The new president of Cyprus is meeting informally with the leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots on Thursday to test the waters on reviving stalemated talks to end the island’s ethnic division that has been a source of instability in the east Mediterranean for decades.
The meeting, hosted by the head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission on the island, will be the first for President-elect Nikos Christodoulides following his election victory earlier this month. The fact that it’s taking place even before Christodoulides formally assumes office on March 1 aims to underscore a campaign pledge to keep a peace deal as an overriding priority.
