The United States may offer financial assistance to the Republic of Cyprus to upgrade the Andreas Papandreou air base in Paphos, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Monday.

Speaking to newspaper Phileleftheros, he said his government has decided to upgrade both the air base in Paphos and the naval base in Mari, at a total cost of €14.7 million, and that he has been in contact with the US over the matter.

“We discussed it with the Americans, who are interested, and who utilised the Andreas Papandreou base for humanitarian purposes,” he said, while also stressing that members of both the US’ political parties visited the base in October.

He added that he had also met US military personnel, and that “I am glad because in their reports on the cooperation with the National Guard, they made reference to the professionalism of its officers”.

He then said on the matter of the base itself that “whether the Americans help us or not, the base will be upgraded.

“The Americans have shown interest. The US ambassador [Julie Davis Fisher] has informed me that in January experts, technocrats who deal with air bases, will come. We want them to give us their opinions about the base’s infrastructure,” he said.

Asked what the US’ involvement in the base may be, he said they will either offer “technical assistance or financial assistance.

“In any case, the base will continue to belong to the Republic of Cyprus,” he added, later stressing that “there is no question of giving away a base to any other [country]”.

On the matter of the naval base at Mari, he said he is speaking with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen about the possibility of the European Union offering a “financial contribution”.

This contribution would likely be funded through the European defence industry reinforcement through common procurement instrument (Edirpa), and Christodoulides said the aim of the funding would be to allow Mari to host navy ships from any of the EU’s 27 member states.

He was then asked whether the bases would provide facilities to “any state or only to the west”, and said that this would depend on the planned purpose of a stop, and “whether it is for humanitarian purposes.

“Let me remind you that … our ports were used by China to remove 2,000 Chinese people from the region. We have not refused anyone [who wished to use our facilities] for humanitarian reasons. That is out of the question,” he said.

He then said Cyprus was only forced to turn down requests to use its facilities for humanitarian purposes when they became stretched beyond their capacity.

“There was a day at the Andreas Papandreou base when we could not accommodate people and we were forced to refuse, and countries made other choices. We do not want to lose this comparative advantage, and at the same time, our own people are being trained,” he said.

When it was pointed out that his government has faced accusations of “turning Cyprus into a base for the Americans”, he expressed his rejection of the charge.

“We are not a base or anything else,” he began, before being asked about the prospect of Cyprus joining Nato, and offering his view that the United Kingdom has in the past stood in the way of relations between Cyprus and Nato.

“It is not a Nato issue. If it were feasible to join Nato tomorrow, we would. Besides, if you ask me from a historical perspective, Cyprus should have been in Nato since 1960. The reason why it did not join is not due to Turkey, but due to another country which wanted to maintain the comparative advantages it had in Cyprus on its own,” he said.

He added, “given that Cyprus’ accession to Nato is not possible at the present stage, we are trying in terms of education, know-how, and reorganisation to secure these advantages, and when the conditions are right, we will also become a Nato member state”.

Asked whether Cyprus could financially keep up with the demands of aligning itself with Nato, he said the state of Cyprus economy at present “allows us to strengthen its deterrent power.

“That is why our economy is important … because it also affects the Cyprus problem, because you are much less vulnerable to pressure and to being exploited,” he said.