The United States navy’s replenishment tanker ship the USS Laramie arrived in Limassol on Thursday, the country’s ambassador in Nicosia Julie Davis Fisher said.

She said the ship has stopped in Cyprus for scheduled maintenance and “well-earned rest” for its crew.

She added that the ship is named after the Laramie river, a tributary of the North Platte river, which runs through the US states of Colorado and Wyoming, and said the ship itself is “crucial in maintaining the US navy’s readiness in Europe, providing fuel for ships and aircraft at sea”.

The ship’s arrival is one of a growing number of US navy ships docking in Cyprus, with President Nikos Christodoulides having boarded the nuclear submarine the USS Indiana for a visit on New Year’s Eve, after it had docked in Limassol the previous day.

On the same day, the destroyer ship the USS Oscar Austin docked in Limassol for a “New Years port call”.

Earlier in December, the USS The Sullivans visited Larnaca, while the USS Oak Hill made multiple stops on the island earlier in 2024, most recently at the end of October.

The USS Oak Hill had previously arrived in Cyprus to conduct scheduled maintenance, with commanding officer Jason Nowell saying at the time that the marines would conduct “routine bilateral training exercises” with Cyprus’ National Guard both in Paphos and Larnaca.

The Defence Visual Information Distribution Service said these exercises are “part of [the marines’] scheduled deployment”.

The USS Oak Hill had in August taken part in joint exercises with the USS Wasp and the Turkish navy’s amphibious assault ship the TCG Anadolu, and fellow Turkish navy ship the TCG Gokova.

The USS Wasp’s presence in Cyprus had also generated controversy on the island, with Akel accusing the Cypriot government of dragging Cyprus into the middle of extremely heightened tensions by consenting to the “continuing concentration of foreign military forces on our island”.

The USS Wasp’s official social media page at the time had said the exercises had taken place “in a demonstration of enduring cooperation and mutual commitment to maritime security”.

After those exercises had taken place, the USS Wasp docked in the Turkish Aegean city of Izmir, but this was met with controversy after two sailors from the ship were attacked by 15 people while walking down the city’s central Cyprus Martyrs Street.

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar said that “south Cyprus has become a military stopover point for countries which show at every opportunity they are party to the crisis and that they are complicit in the crimes against humanity being committed, and it has even started to use its civilian ports for military purposes.”

Meanwhile, Turkey’s defence ministry issued a warning to the Republic of Cyprus over military activities on the island.

“The recent increase in activity on the island of Cyprus and the Greek Cypriot Administration’s ongoing activities are being meticulously monitored,” they said,

Despite this, Cyprus’ Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas was resolute in his defence of the ship’s docking in Cyprus, speaking of his “sadness” at “some publications and also some political parties” which criticised the government’s handling of the situation.

 “There is nothing reprehensible, there is no fault, we are a recognised, democratic, modern state inside the international community, and we have every right, the inalienable right, to perform exercises for the purpose of being ready if and when issues arise,” he said.