The president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and a United Nations official held talks to evaluate a solution for the benefit and welfare of the people of Cyprus on Thursday, local media reported.

TRNC President Ersin Tatar received U.N. assistant secretary-general for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, Miroslav Jenca, at the presidential office in Lefkoşa (Nicosia), according to Turkish News Agency-Cyprus (TAK).

Following the talks, Jenca said he had a "clear and sincere" meeting with Tatar in which they discussed the situation in Cyprus in the context of security and peace.

Colin Stewart, the head of the U.N. Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), and Ergün Olgun, special representative to the Turkish Cypriot president, also attended the meeting that lasted about an hour.

On Wednesday, Jenca also met with Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades.

Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong dispute between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.

In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece's annexation led to Türkiye's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.

It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom.

The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted the U.N.'s Annan Plan to end the longstanding dispute.

Today, the Turkish side supports a solution based on the equal sovereignty of the two states on the island. On the other hand, the Greek side wants a federal solution based on the hegemony of the Greeks.

Türkiye, which has the longest continental coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, has rejected maritime boundary claims by Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, stressing that their excessive claims violate the sovereign rights of Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriots.