Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign and European Affairs, Harris Georgiades, met on Thursday with the members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Armed Forces of the French Senate, Catherine Dumas and Isabelle Raimond – Pavero, who are paying visits to Greece and Cyprus as rapporteurs of the committee for the preparation of a report on the issue of rearmament and alteration of the strategic situation in the Eastern Mediterranean.
According to a House press release, Georgiades pointed the need to strengthen the role of the European Union and its member states, especially France, in the Eastern Mediterranean region, because of the potential effects of the developments taking place in the region.
He pointed out the obvious parallels between Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and that of Turkey in Cyprus and the Aegean. Georgiades said that Cyprus fully supports Ukraine, on the basis of principles, and criticized at the same time the approach of the EU, based on which violations of international law by authoritarian regimes are ignored for the sake of dependencies and economic interests, as he said.
As regards the migration crisis, the Cyprus parliamentarian pointed EU’s inability to draw a common line on this issue. He spoke of the disproportionate pressure and burdens on Cyprus which is faced with huge influxes of migrants from Turkey who end up in the Cyprus Republic via the occupied areas.
Pavero in her statements spoke of the close ties and the high level of cooperation between France and Cyprus, especially in the field of defense. She underlined that France condemns any violation of the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus by Turkey, pointing out the need for the EU to play a more active role in the negotiations to solve the Cyprus problem.
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.
Cyprus News Agency