CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The new round of the Conference on Cyprus under the auspices of the United Nations started Wednesday in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana with a plenary session.
Participants of the event include Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades, as well as foreign ministers from Turkey, Greece and Britain.
Federica Mogherini, the high representative of the European Union (EU) for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, arrived here Tuesday night to meet the participants.
The UN Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide earlier on Tuesday said the talks at Crans-Montana would take place in two separate "tables," one dealing with the key issue of security and guarantees, which involves the guarantor countries, and the other tackling bi-communal issues like governance and power-sharing.
Eide told reporters that among the six major chapters of negotiation, the security and guarantees is "where the positions are diametrically opposed," or "at least traditionally have been diametrically opposed."
He said that the four chapters, namely governance and power sharing, property, economy and the EU matters, have been largely done and the two sides have made unprecedented progress on the territory chapter.
"What I'm saying is that on these five chapters we've made substantive progress. On the issue that is most complicated right now and very much in focus now, the security and guarantees chapter, that's what we're trying to do in the coming days," he said.
According to the UN official, although for practical purposes, the planning end date of the conference is July 7, but the conference could end earlier or continue after July 7 if agreed by all sides.
