Clashing interests and differences in views will hinder the latest round of informal talks between the two Cypriot sides from reaching any essential conclusion, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu said Thursday.
At the meeting led by the U.N., set to take place in Geneva from March 17-18, Greek and Turkish Cypriots will be joined by Türkiye, Britain and Greece, but Ertuğruloğlu said "not too much importance should be attached" to it.
"The Greek Cypriots want to use the opportunity (meeting) to ... pick up the negotiation from where they were left off (in 2017)," Ertuğruloğlu told Reuters in London. "For us, it is an opportunity to reiterate how we see the way forward: two separate, sovereign, equal states."
"There is no likelihood of establishing a partnership with the Greek Cypriots so why bother? Why insist on a proven failure of a formula? It's our question to the United Nations," he added.
Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides said on Wednesday he was committed to resuming reunification talks with Turkish Cypriots and said any deal should be based on U.N. resolutions.
The conflict has long been on the agenda of the U.N., which has kept a peacekeeping force on the island since 1964.
"In the absence of a common ground, what can anybody realistically expect from this meeting in Geneva?" Ertuğruloğlu said.
The island of Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong struggle between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to achieve a comprehensive settlement. Five decades of Cyprus talks have led nowhere.
In the early 1960s, ethnic attacks forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aiming at Greece's annexation of the island led to Türkiye's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence.
The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was founded in 1983.
The island has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland.
The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots thwarted the U.N.'s Annan plan to end the decadeslong dispute, which had envisaged a reunited Cyprus joining the EU.
The status of the island remains unresolved in spite of a series of negotiations over the years.
While Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration supported a federation in Cyprus, Türkiye and the TRNC insisted on a two-state solution that reflected the realities of the island.
