Cyprus and Israel decide to hold intergovernmental meeting in 2024

The President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides and the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, decided to hold an intergovernmental meeting between Cyprus and Israel in 2024, during their bilateral talks at the Presidential Palace in Nicosia.

The two leaders on 3 September also discussed the Cyprus issue, energy, the fight against terrorism, while placing special emphasis on the expansion of regional cooperation.

In the joint statements that followed their meeting, the President of the Republic stated that he briefed the Israeli Prime Minister on the latest developments in the Cyprus issue and the efforts for the resumption of the negotiations in line with the agreed UN framework. "In this regard I thanked the Prime Minister for his clear, consistent and indispensable support to our efforts to reunify Cyprus", he said.

According to CNA sources, during the tete-a-tete between the two leaders, the Israeli Prime Minister reaffirmed to President Christodoulides that his country's close relationship with Cyprus is not affected by Turkey-Israel relations, while on his part, the President raised with Netanyahu the issue of Israelis buying properties in the occupied territories of Cyprus.

"We took stock of the state of play of our partnership and the range of our shared objectives, and discussed the roadmap ahead", President Christodoulides stated, adding that they agreed on an intergovernmental meeting in the first quarter of 2024. In addition, the two leaders identified next steps in key areas such as political dialogue, energy, defense, AI, business, and tourism, the President said.

"We also discussed extensively how we tackle terrorism. I reiterated to the Prime Minister that we stand by Israel in condemning all forms of terrorism in no uncertain terms", he said, highlighting "the crucial importance of our ongoing coordination in this respect".

Regarding energy cooperation, the President said that they discussed how to proceed, as a follow up to the meeting in Jerusalem as well as the meeting of the Energy Ministers and the technical working groups on natural gas and hydrogen and on electrical interconnectivity.  

"We also went through the strategic dimension in our energy cooperation and our coordination in the East Med Gas Forum. We agreed that, particularly given the Russian aggression in Ukraine and the need especially in Europe for energy diversification and increased interconnectivity, we should advance the numerous prospects of developing a reliable energy corridor between like minder countries linking the Eastern Mediterranean basin to Europe. This concerns projects such as electrical interconnections, pipelines for gas, cleaner energy sources and LNG terminals", he noted.

Regarding regional cooperation, the President said that they exchanged views on the way ahead in the trilateral platform with Greece and they agreed on their commitment to expand this partnership.

On this, the President said that Netanyahu informed him on the opportunities arising from the Abraham Accords. "In this context I expressed Cyprus’ strong interest to act as a gateway through combining our trilateral projects in a broader regional format with other like-minded partners form the Gulf to the Indian subcontinent", President Christodoulides said.

CNA sources say that the next tripartite will probably be expanded (3+1) and will include India.

On his part, the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, thanked the President of the Republic for his personal friendship as well as for the friendship that connects the two peoples and emphasized the benefits of the close cooperation with Cyprus and Greece in recent years.

Referring to the cooperation of the two countries in security, the Prime Minister took the opportunity to thank President Christodoulides "for the excellent work of Cypriot security services" to prevent an attempt of terrorist plot against Israelis on the soil of Cyprus, as he said.

On energy, Netanyahu focused on the need for an electrical connector, that will connect Cyprus to Greece and to the mainland Europe, and Cyprus to Israel and possibly to countries to the East, noting the importance of not being isolated, adding that various options for cooperation in the natural gas sector are also being considered.

Regarding firefighting cooperation, the Israeli Prime Minster expressed his interest in participating to a regional firefighting emergency center based in Cyprus, referring to the initiative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus, who together with his Jordanian counterpart sent a joint letter on the matter to the EU, which seems to be positively disposed towards this.

Netanyahu noted that Israel has a lot to offer on the subject, giving the example of their use of AI systems "which immeasurably increase the ability to put out fires", as he said.

"The last thing that I want to mention, is the possibility of making real the Asia-Middle East-Europe corridor, especially in infrastructure. That is going to happen as extension to the Abraham Accords, with other countries of the region. I am confident, that we will have a corridor than can go through Israel, from Asia to the Arabian Peninsula to Israel, to Cyprus and from there to Europe", he said, giving the example of fiber optics, highlighting that this corridor is the best route, since it's the shortest route, and the most economic route.

Finally, according to a CNA source, the two leaders also discussed a possible agreement to avoid double taxation, while they did not discuss on the dispute over the Aphrodite plot.

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.  

(Source: CNA)