Press Releases

Dear Defence Minister of Israel, Dear Yoav,

A very warm welcome to you and to the Israeli delegation at the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Cyprus.

Cyprus and Israel have a well-established strategic defence partnership.

Our people to people ties and connections through antiquity have fostered an unshakable link between our two countries. 

Later on, we will be visiting a permanent testament to our close ties: The Cyprus-Israel friendship memorial in Nicosia, in honour of the two thousand two hundred children born in Cyprus to Jewish holocaust survivors during the period 1946 to 1949, on their way to Eretz, Israel.

Our defence partnership is built on mutual trust and enshrined by our shared determination for a secure, stable and prosperous future for our region.

Today’s meeting was no exception: We reaffirmed the excellent level and robust defence and military cooperation between Cyprus and Israel and we discussed new ideas for further advancing our defence partnership.

We have set out an ambitious agenda which expands to exercises, exchanges, trainings, research, innovation and technology.

We also had the opportunity to go through a wide array of issues, from bilateral cooperation, to our dynamic trilateral defence cooperation between Cyprus-Israel-Greece, to regional security issues and global developments, all of which prove the strategic importance of our defence and security partnership.

As we are getting ready for this year’s large-scale exercise AGAPINOR, this exercise demonstrates the enormous scope of our cooperation, the existing high level of interoperability and the strong interpersonal ties between the men and women of our armed forces.

I had the pleasure to talk to Minister Galant immediately after I was appointed Minister of Defence in early March. Today, I had the chance to elaborate in person on our unwavering objective to develop further the Cypriot-Israeli defence cooperation and brief him on the current security situation and security threats on the island.

The President of the Republic of Cyprus will be paying an official visit to Israel next week. His visit will provide a fresh impetus for advancing our multilayered cooperation and wide ranging bilateral consultations.

Dear friends,

Cyprus and Israel also have an extensive cooperation in the area of armaments through Government-to-Government Agreements. We highly value the Israeli defence industry as a trusted partner in our efforts to modernize our armed forces and upgrade our defence posture and deterrence capabilities.

We will seek to bring closer our respective industries for harnessing opportunities for technological cooperation in areas of mutual interest such as the nexus between climate change and defence.

Dear Yoav,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In recent days we witnessed, once again, the launching of rockets from Gaza resulting in injuries of civilians and damages, which we, of course, regret. I had the chance to be briefed by Minister Galant on the current situation. 

I want to condemn the indiscriminate spate of rocket attacks by terrorists and reiterate our support to Israel's right to defend itself.

Once again, thank you very much, dear Yoav, for your visit, as well as for the excellent discussions and exchange of views.

Toda Raba!

(EP)