The Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence briefed the members of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives about the lifting of the American embargo on the sale of arms to the Republic of Cyprus and about Turkey’s recent provocative actions in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ioannis Kasoulides, said that there has been an innovation in the Ministry with the establishment of a department that will deal exclusively with Turkey. Regarding the Ukrainian issue, the Minister noted that Turkey with Russia’s attack on Ukraine has “managed to greatly upgrade its influence and power in the world because it has managed to play the role of a mediator”. At the same time, he noted that over the years, Turkey has managed to utilize its size and its capabilities and pursues a vigorous foreign policy, which aims to improve its relations with countries in the Middle East and the European Union, but not with Greece and Cyprus.
Unfortunately, he said, in the EU “we have never had a common foreign policy, as far as Turkey is concerned, because of complicated interests”, explaining that in this matter “the foreign policy of Germany on Turkey is different, the policy of France is different, the policy of Austria is different and so on”.
He added that during this period, Turkey has been focusing on the effort to promote the upgrading of the occupied territory of Cyprus. “He will not get the recognition”, of the illegal regime in the occupied part of the island, underlined the Foreign Minister, but this is their goal. He also said that the President of Turkey is focusing towards this direction, and has “enticed some EU countries, possibly two, to open offices of the illegal regime.”
Referring to the lifting of the embargo of the United States on the sale of arms to Cyprus, he noted that “the Americans do not have much confidence in Cyprus and that is why they set a condition that the lifting of the embargo be approved annually”. He underlined that the US set two conditions for the lifting of the embargo, the fight against money laundering, which was achieved, and the ban on the docking of Russian ships, which in the past was impossible to do so, while today with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been implemented.
On his part, the Minister of Defence, Charalambos Petrides, told the MPs that the National Guard possesses today state of the art weaponry, the most advanced in the last 20 years. He also noted that there is interoperability in the Ministry, cooperation with other member states and good cooperation with Greece. In September, he added, the American embargo was completely lifted, since all the conditions were met. There is a new cooperation framework, he noted, we are getting more options, but there is no plan now for weaponry from the United States.
He said that due to the sanctions against Russia, “we will face special problems regarding the Russian weapon systems and third countries are being sought for the supply of spare parts for the maintenance of the weapons systems”. He added that, in terms of maintenance, there are contracts with Russia and ways to implement them are being sought.
Source: Cyprus News Agency