Cyprus and New Jersey National Guard to sign partnership agreement on Thursday

The US State Partnership Programme (SPP) agreement between the New Jersey National Guard and Cyprus will be signed on Thursday, and consists of a variety of military fields, authorities said on Monday.

Defence Minister Michalis Giorgallas announced on Sunday that the agreement would be signed later in the week.

According to information from the US Embassy given to Cyprus Mail, these agreements have been made with a variety of countries, and matches military organisations from various US states with countries, on a comparable size, mission, and focus basis.

In an announcement about Cyprus’ acceptance to the programme back in October, the New Jersey national guard said that this selection demonstrates the growing partnership between the two governments on maritime security, counterterrorism, and natural disaster and emergency response.

Cyprus is New Jersey’s second SPP partner, marking recently 21 years of partnership with the Republic of Albania.

Celeste Wallander, assistant secretary of defence for international security affairs, met last month with Marios Lysiotis, Cyprus’ ambassador to the United States, to officially announce that the Republic of Cyprus was paired with the New Jersey National Guard.

According to the SPP programme’s website, the national guard will conduct military-to-military engagements in support of defence security goals, but also leverage whole-of-society relationships and capabilities to facilitate broader interagency and corollary engagements spanning military, government, economic and social spheres.

Announcing the signing on Sunday, Giorgallas said: “In the context of this cooperation, Cyprus will draw experiences, know-how and even information regarding technologically upgraded weapon systems.”

Giorgallas also noted that, the 3+1 cooperation – Greece, Cyprus, Israel plus the USA – was now a structured cooperation which is being implemented with constantly new objectives that are added beyond the exercises or trainings.

The signing will take place on Thursday at an event at the presidential palace.