Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Chirstodoulides believes that relations with the United States have made important steps in strengthening the security dimension, with Washington increasingly acknowledging that Cyprus is a solid partner in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“In our relations with the US, in recent years we have made important steps in strengthening the security dimension – an area that lagged behind – with the US increasingly acknowledging that Cyprus is part of the security frontier in the Eastern Mediterranean,” Georgiades said.
He said the recently signed Statement of Intent between the US and Cyprus, which codifies the fields of security co-operation between them, was of “tremendous value from a practical point of view, but also symbolically as it serves notice that Cyprus can act proactively and effectively for the greater good”.
The comments were made during his presentation at Centre of Excellence in Risk and Decision Sciences – CERIDES, at the European University of Cyprus, the Minister referred to the three main pillars of Cyprus foreign policy.
They are: enhancement and expansion of Cyprus relations with countries in the Middle East and the Gulf, a more active involvement of Cyprus within the EU and the strengthening of relations with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, as well as with key players in the international arena such as Japan, and India.
The Minister said that regional trilaterals were delivering concrete results, and indicative of this was the fact that a decision has been taken to establish a permanent secretariat for the trilaterals in Nicosia, with the aim of creating a centralised mechanism for implementation.
The Minister also said that the preparation of a National Security Strategy was in the final stages and that an unclassified version of the document would be available to the public soon.
“As you can imagine, the consultation process for the conceptualization and development of the Strategy was quite long and challenging…”
“The overarching objective is self-evident: to create an institutional framework which sets out the necessary conditions for the protection and safeguarding of the state’s independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and the resilience of society and state institutions.”
