Cyprus President Confirms COP31 Attendance After Invitation Dispute Resolved

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has confirmed that Cyprus will attend the COP31 UN climate summit in Antalya, Türkiye, ending a months-long diplomatic row over the summit’s invitations. His announcement on Tuesday, 13 October, follows the receipt of a formal invitation letter and weeks of coordinated diplomatic pressure from the European Union, and clears the way for full EU participation at the leaders’ meeting scheduled for 11 November.

The COP31 invitation row

According to a report in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sent personal letters to the leaders of 26 EU member states inviting them to a leaders’ meeting within COP31 on 11 November — with Cyprus initially left out. A Cypriot government source told the Cyprus News Agency that the formal invitation Cyprus later received followed “systematic and coordinated” diplomatic action backed by European institutions and member states.

Christodoulides said he was satisfied with the outcome, crediting a decisive contribution from partners and diplomatic and political work conducted away from the public eye. He noted that the invitation also carried messages concerning the Cyprus problem. Asked about the possibility of unwelcome surprises at the summit, he said preparations covered every eventuality, and pointed to Cyprus’s membership of the 27-member European Union.

A dispute months in the making

The dispute over Cyprus’s participation in COP31 events has been building since spring. In March, Cyprus was reportedly not invited to a COP31 briefing at UN headquarters in New York, and Politico, citing diplomats, reported that Turkish officials objected when Cypriots sought to join the briefing as part of the EU delegation.

In April, the EU expressed “serious concern” after Cyprus was reportedly denied a place at a COP31 meeting chaired by Turkish environment minister and COP31 President-designate Murat Kurum on 27 March. The Turkish side responded that such meetings were not held under a formal UN mandate and that invitations were at the organiser’s discretion. In June, Turkish diplomatic sources told Reuters that Cypriot delegations had been invited to all COP31 events under UN coordination, while EU officials maintained that the full and equal participation of an EU member state in international processes cannot be questioned or unilaterally restricted.

What it means for COP31 in Antalya

The resolution matters because COP31 — running from 9 to 20 November at the Antalya Expo Center — is being led under an unusual shared arrangement: Türkiye holds the presidency under Murat Kurum, while Australia, in the person of climate minister Chris Bowen, has exclusive authority over the formal negotiations. A leaders’ meeting on 11 November is expected to set the political tone for the talks.

For the EU, which negotiated a common position that Cyprus could not be left out, the outcome preserves the bloc’s unity heading into the summit. For the COP31 presidency, it removes a political distraction at a moment when the focus is on delivery — from the new “mitigation package” the EU plans to push, to the electrification and finance tracks that negotiators have been preparing since the pre-COP meetings in Fiji and Tuvalu.

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Conclusion

With Cyprus’s attendance now confirmed, the diplomatic dispute that dogged COP31 preparations since the spring is over. Attention in Antalya can return to the substance: emissions cuts, climate finance and the implementation of climate promises that delegates have been demanding. Read more climate coverage in our climate section.