Netanyahu: Israel and Cyprus final energy decisions in six months 'the latest'

Cyprus, Greece and Israel have agreed to step up cooperation on energy, security, defence as well as academia and the Diaspora, with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announcing that his country along with Cyprus will be taking decisions on exporting natural gas to Europe in six months the latest.

At a joint press conference following the 9th Trilateral Summit held in Nicosia, the three leaders announced they will also examine ways of broadening the “3+1” format meetings to include India. As it was announced, the next Trilateral Summit will be held next year.

Netanyahu also said that Israel will have to decide how to export its gas while some decisions need to be taken by Cyprus to; and this needs to happen in the next three to six months.

On his part, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the energy issue is an issue of common interest and that significant investments are taking place in the field of energy in all three countries.

President Nikos Christodoulides noted that this was the 9th Trilateral meeting in the 8 years since the inception of this very important regional platform. He said, “This is without a doubt a dynamic strategic alliance between partners of democratic values, with shared objectives, and which invest in a joint vision of stability, prosperity, and security in our region and beyond”.

During their discussions, he said, they reviewed the progress achieved in multiple areas of cooperation, which have been developing all these years and “reaffirmed our aim to intensify collaborations in fields such as energy, security, defence, economy, as well as academia and our diasporas”. On emergency response, he said that over the summer “we showed the strength and immediacy of our friendship” by joining forces on the field, battling raging fires and helping each other out.

“We are grateful to have had the Greek and Israeli teams by our side in such difficult moments,” said Christodoulides

On energy, he said they “agreed that natural gas and renewable energy is a prime pillar of cooperation in the region, especially in light of the recent geopolitical developments and energy insecurity, especially in Europe, dictating the need for energy diversification and increased interconnectivity”.

President Christodoulides said they reaffirmed their “strong commitment to the 3+1 format with the United States and agreed on the value of intensifying 3+1 cooperation, with concrete deliverables also with other countries and we talked specifically about India”.

They also discussed ways to tap the momentum achieved by the ground-breaking Abraham Accords and identified opportunities arising from regional multilateral platforms, which hold vast potential for expanding rules - based regional integration.

President Christodoulides briefed Prime Minister Mitsotakis and Prime Minister Netanyahu on the latest developments regarding the Cyprus Issue and on his initiatives and efforts to break the deadlock in the negotiations for a comprehensive settlement in line with the agreed UN framework. He also thanked the two Prime Ministers for their unwavering support.

Noting that the partnership is not exclusive or directed against any other country, he said “it is open to other like-minded parties in our resolute effort to create and advance synergies, based on common values, to the benefit of our countries and peoples, as well as of our region”.

He also said the meeting “provided an opportunity to exchange views on ongoing regional challenges and to reaffirm the value of our continuous coordination in effectively addressing a multiplicity of threats, including antisemitism, and the scourge of terrorism. We obviously referred to the recent terrorist attacks in Israel which we denounce in the strongest possible terms. Benjamin, you have our unwavering solidarity”, the President remarked.

Replying, the Israeli PM said since the founding of this East-Mediterranean partnership between the three democracies “our relations have flourished bilaterally and trilaterally in ways that people found hard to imagine”. He said the three countries are “in some ways very similar countries” and explained that hundreds of thousands, by now, millions of Israelis have come back and forth not only visiting both Greece and Cyprus but also businesses are being established.

“Israelis are coming here both as entrepreneurs, as investors, as technologists, as tourists, as diplomats but it is something that is very natural because they feel very comfortable with the culture,” he noted.

Netanyahu talked about “people to people synergies” as ordinary people find it very easy to communicate with each other, to do business with each other, to establish friendships with each other”.

On gas, he said Israel will have to decide soon on how to exports its gas while “some decisions have to be made by Cyprus. And we are looking at the possibility of cooperating on this. Some decisions will be made I think in the next three to six months, probably three months”.

Regarding the electricity connector, he said as Cyprus and Israel are both islands, “there is an electricity connector that is being organised right now from mainland Greece to Cyprus. We would like to have it connected to Israel and possibly to the east of Israel so that we can optimise the use of electricity. That is something that we are eagerly interested and pursuing and we discussed the mechanism how to advance this”, the PM said.

On fires, he said the “world is getting hotter…because the climate is getting more and more punitive and with eruption of fires that truly endanger our countries”. Noting Israel has helped with firefighting planes, however, “we are talking about going well beyond that, going into AI systems for early detection and other things that we are developing separately. This is really one of those areas when we say we will do it better together, there is no question that's the case”.

On terror he said that there were instances of cooperation between Israel and Cyprus and Israel and Greece “where our security forces cooperated to stop terror, Iranian backed terror. That remains a very forceful commitment on the part of all three governments and we will continue to do that in addition to cooperation in defence matters that is developing all the time”.

He also said they discussed the possibility of an expansion of the Abraham accords. “All three countries view that as a great possibility but they also see that this could lead to a connection between India, the Arabian Peninsula. Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Europe. There is a natural almost, geographic connection but it could also be something that will lead to many, many rewards for our people and for our countries. So, I think we all see eye to eye on that”, he added.

The Israeli premier also said that Israel will soon open its dairy products market which is long overdue, “a move that I think Israelis are going to be a lot happier with and your producers are going to be happier. So be prepared for that, we can enjoy the benefits of each other's economies in the most direct sense, we intend to open the dairy market very soon to Greek and Cypriot and other imports. May the best yogurt win, you have a pretty good chance of winning”, he told Mitsotakis and Christodoulides.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said the three reaffirmed “the strength of this trilateral relationship” that has established. It has proven to be incredibly resilient and “very successful for our countries and our peoples”.

He said they touched upon the “potential of expanding the trilateral partnership to possibly include in a 3+1 format countries, not just the US which we are already working very, very closely but other countries such as India as the PM of Israel pointed out”.

He explained “we have a natural interest in looking towards the West and expanding its geopolitical and trade footprint in our part of the world and I think this is something we will look to explore more systematically and potentially inviting the Indian prime minister to join us in our next trilateral meeting”.

Mitsotakis also said they focused on energy, noting that “Greece is currently not a producer of gas but is a natural entry point for natural gas into the European market”, with significant investments in the country currently underway “so we have a great interest in seeing how the Israeli and Cypriot gas can be exported towards the EU and in that respect solutions that have the blessing of the two governments and have been tested by the rigours of the market would certainly be supported by us”, he added. We have always been firm supporters of the electricity interconnection between our two countries. This is a project of great interest as we seek to expand more into renewables and the greater diversification of our energy sources, Mitsotakis added.

In the field of civil protection, he said “we have all been tested this summer by wildfires, Greece in particular”. It is clear, he said, that “we need to do more to coordinate our activities in civil protection, possibly institutionalizing the participation of Israel in European civil protection initiatives. I think this is something we need to explore”.

He backed the proposal on focusing more on how technology “will help us address this problem. we are already talking to Israel about AI based solutions that will offer us early detection capabilities and again if you need a country that has many fires to train your AI models to identify them, then Greece can be unfortunately a prime target”.

Civil protection, he added, is going to rise up on our list of priorities as “this is a real threat that can have devastating impact on lives, property but also on our natural environment. Obviously, more cooperation is only going to do us good in that field”.

On security and defence, he said “we have strong relationships, with Cyprus it has been a very obviously and longstanding relationship but also with Israel there is more we can do on defence and in the fight against terror. “I can assure you we are cooperating very effectively and sometimes things that never become public actually indicate the depth of our relationship when it comes to our anti-terror initiatives”, he added

(Source: CNA, Pics: PIO)