Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos on Tuesday hit out at what he called the unnecessary public debate and war of words over Cyprus joining Nato.

Kombos, speaking at the House foreign affairs committee, said both his and the president’s comment on Nato had been scrutinised “with a magnifying glass” by those with “a willingness to misinterpret” them.

He said the entire public debate on the issue was “not necessary”.

Last week President Nikos Christodoulides announced that Cyprus was going full steam ahead to get on the Nato ladder through closer military cooperation with the US.

Christodoulides had even presented Cyprus’ roadmap to join Nato to outgoing US President Joe Biden on October 30 at the White House.

However, Cyprus cannot joint Nato for the foreseeable future because Turkey is one of the 32 member countries in the military defence bloc and has veto power.

But there are Nato association mechanisms for non-members like Cyprus that do not need Ankara’s approval. One in particular, the ‘Major Non-Nato Allies’ needs only US backing.

The comments by the president caused a storm, especially from left-wing Akel, which also prompted right-wing Disy to jump into the fray.

“This discussion will take place at the right time,” Kombos said on Tuesday.

“We are not at the point of applying for Nato membership. We’re getting ahead of ourselves here.”

As for the US, Kombos said there were a number of initiatives launched with different degrees of implementation and that developments were expected on some.

“The [US] relationship for us is extremely important,” he said. Cyprus’ geographic location had placed the island in the field of US interest in the region due to the Middle East crisis but also due to Nicosia’s Western orientation.

Kombos also referred to the need to coordinate training and infrastructure capabilities with Nato countries with which Cyprus cooperates. “And this is our approach.

“The implementation [into Nato] requires some steps,” he added.

To a comment by Akel MPs that the public debate on Nato did not start in the public sphere but from the presidential palace, Kombos said he was not saying there should be no debate.

“But the dialogue about the final outcome that is happening now is meaningless because no one can determine when it will happen,” he said.

Diko MP Christiana Erotokritou called the public spat a “storm in a teacup”.

“It is clear that we must discuss the upgrading of the defence capacity of the Republic of Cyprus, and alignment with EU member states,” she said.