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Informal Meeting on Cyprus, UN Geneva: arrivals and meeting - 18 March 2025
Fresh talks over the future of Cyprus continued on Tuesday as representatives of the divided Mediterranean island gathered at the UN in Geneva along with guarantors Greece, Türkiye and the United Kingdom at the request of UN chief António Guterres.
The UN has led negotiations towards a settlement of the issues which led to the division of the island, with the Security Council authorising a peacekeeping force in 1964, UNFICYP. In the absence of a lasting agreement, the force remains on the island to supervise ceasefire lines, a buffer zone and to support humanitarian activities.
Mr. Guterres attempted to bring the two sides together in 2017 at the Swiss Alpine resort of Crans-Montana but talks ultimately broke down. A further push was made in 2021.
The meeting takes place “in the context of the Secretary-General’s good offices’ efforts on the Cyprus issue”, in line with his commitment to continue efforts made last October, explained the UN chief's Spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric in a recent briefing in New York.
“The informal meeting will provide an opportunity for a meaningful discussion on the way forward on the Cyprus issue,” Mr Dujarric said.
“The United Nations remains committed to supporting the Cypriot leaders and all Cypriots.”
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STORY: Informal Meeting on Cyprus, UN Geneva - arrivals 18 March 2025
TRT: 04’04”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 18 March 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior medium shot: Palais des Nations, Flag Alley.
- Medium-wide: arrival of Tatiana Valovaya, UN Geneva Director-General.
- Medium, UN security guards.
- Medium-wide: arrival of António Guterres, UN Secretary-General.
- Medium: TV cameras, journalists.
- Medium-wide: Stephen Doughty, Minister of State for Europe, North America, and Overseas Territories, United Kingdom.
- Medium: TV cameras, journalists, security guards.
- Medium-wide: George Gerapetritis, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Greece.
- Medium: UN security guard.
- Medium: Ersin Tatar, Turkish Cypriot leader.
- Wide: journalists and security guards waiting for arrivals.
- Medium: Nikos Christodoulides, Greek Cypriot leader.
- Medium: Hakan Fidan, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Türkiye.
- Medium: shadows of TV cameras, journalists, microphone in foreground.
- Wide: Ersin Tatar, Turkish Cypriot leader, inside Palais des Nations.
- Medium-wide: Ersin Tatar, Turkish Cypriot leader, inside Palais des Nations.
- Wide: Ersin Tatar, Turkish Cypriot leader, enters Room III, Palais des Nations.
- Wide: Hakan Fidan, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Türkiye, entering Room III, Palais des Nations.
- Medium-wide: Hakan Fidan, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Türkiye, entering Room III, Palais des Nations.
- Medium, photographer taking shot, journalists.
- Medium-wide: António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, entering Room III, Palais des Nations, followed by Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs.
- Medium-wide: delegates inside room, TV journalists to rear.
- Medium: delegates inside room, TV journalists to rear.
- Medium-wide: delegates inside room, TV journalists, photographers to rear.
- Medium: Nikos Christodoulides, Greek Cypriot leader in centre of shot.
- Medium: delegates, country advisers.
- Medium-wide: António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, leaving Room III with Nikos Christodoulides, Greek Cypriot leader, and Ersin Tatar, Turkish Cypriot leader, standing on dais for family photo.
- Medium: António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, flanked by Nikos Christodoulides, Greek Cypriot leader, and Ersin Tatar, Turkish Cypriot leader.
- Medium-wide: António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, with Nikos Christodoulides, Greek Cypriot leader, and Ersin Tatar, Turkish Cypriot leader, waiting for remaining delegates to join for the family photo.
- Medium: pan of delegates.
- Medium-close: photo pool, pan to delegates standing on dais.
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New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends