If we hope for a settlement to the Cyprus issue, Cypriots must learn to live together on the island again, said the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Deputy Special Adviser on Cyprus Colin Stewart, on Thursday in his speech at the 5th Cyprus Forum in Nicosia. He also described as "encouraging" the news that Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot leaders have reached an agreement with Secretary-General Guterres to meet informally later this month in New York. According to Stewart, for 60 years, UNFICYP has been trying to keep the peace in Cyprus, with 150,000 troops and police from 44 countries having joined this effort, and 187 peacekeepers having given their lives on this island in the cause of peace, contributing to the freedom from daily violence that Cypriots have enjoyed for the last 50 years, while successive Secretaries-General have devoted their good offices to helping Cypriot leaders solve the Cyprus Issue. Sixty years later, it feels very much like we are yet again at a cros sroad, both globally and in Cyprus, continued the UN official, adding that last week in New York the member states of the UN adopted the Pact for the Future, a wide-ranging recommitment to multilateralism, Steward added. 'It is easy to feel disconnected from such global gatherings, thousands of kilometers away, but this year the state of the world seems particularly dire. In his statement to the General Assembly, the Secretary-General described a situation that has become unsustainable. We are facing unprecedented challenges and the only solution is to reinvigorate the international multilateral system,' he noted. The UN official continued pointing out that as citizens of this planet, Cypriots are just as concerned as everyone else by the raging wars, the lack of respect for international law and international humanitarian law, the changing climate, growing inequalities, adding that Cyprus is particularly vulnerable to climate change, with reports showing that over 50 percent of Cyprus is already at risk of desertification. 'But there's another important way that the Pact for the Future is relevant to Cyprus. Until just a few days before the summit, it looked like the naysayers may have been right. And yet, with all the divisions in the world right now, 193 countries, some of them at war with each other, were able to find the courage, summon a spirit of dialogue and compromise, and come to an agreement,' Stewart said. He added that despite it not being the best agreement each of the parties would have hoped for, and all the challenges and setbacks in the implementation, this development does show that the spirit of multilateralism is not, as some people have feared, dead and that when the political will is there, an agreement can be found even against all odds. He then described as "encouraging" the news that Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot leaders have reached an agreement with Secretary-General Guterres to meet informally later this month in New York. 'It is an important first step, and we all hope that together they can find a way forward that will ultimately lead to talks to reach a settlement of the Cyprus Issue. Optimism is enshrined in the job description for my post, but at the same time I know it won't be easy. As I have said at this Forum before, however, the stakes are high because time is running out. The divisions on the island continue to grow deeper, and, while we can't say for sure that this is the last chance, at the same time we cannot count on there being other opportunities in the future. So we'd better make the best of the current fleeting possibility in case it is the last one', he stressed. The UN continue our efforts to build bridges across the divide and to remove walls, he then said, stressing that economic ties are the most effective ways to bring the island together, with economic integration paving the way for political unity. He added that the UN continue to facilitate regular meetings of the 12 technical committees where dedicated experts from both sides work effect ively together to address issues of concern to all Cypriots (environmental, crime, cultural heritage, gender), and bring together groups of young people, women, environmentalists, artists from both sides of the island. 'If we hope for a settlement to the Cyprus Issue, one truth remains: Cypriots must learn to live together on the island again, to get beyond 'us versus them'. And the first step is to increase mutual understanding, something that seems to only grow worse each year', he stressed. He added that a lot of Cypriots have reached out to people in the other community, and listened to their stories. 'When you listen, truly listen, to each other's stories, the first thing you recognize is that everyone suffered, and this recognition is the first step on the path to reconciliation. The second thing you recognize is that, while there will never be complete agreement on the past, cherished narratives on both sides are partial truths. There is always some truth to the other side's narrative, and there are always some aspects of our own narrative that don't hold up so well to scrutiny. But the end result of such interactions is that, contrary to the two, non-intersecting and conflicting public narratives, we find that there is actually a lot more common ground than we realize', he stressed in that regard. 'As the Cyprus Issue enters its 7th decade on the UN agenda, in the face of all that is happening around this island, let this be the year that we reveal the hidden common ground and agree on the way forward for Cyprus', he concluded. Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively. The Cyprus News Agency acts as media sponsor for the Cyprus Forum. Source: Cyprus News Agency