Seemingly coming out of left field, news broke this week of Cyprus’ induction into three programmes allowing the purchase of military hardware directly from the US government. Did Nicosia hype it? Yes it did. Will this turn Cyprus into a military force to be reckoned with? Probably not. Regardless, is it significant in geopolitical terms, in that it brings Nicosia and Washington even closer together? Definitely.
On Wednesday, outgoing US President Joe Biden issued Presidential Determination no. 2025-03 authorising the move. Akin to an executive order, the determination read:
“Pursuant to the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 503(a) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and section 3(a)(1) of the Arms Export Control Act, I hereby find that the furnishing of defense articles and defence services to the Republic of Cyprus will strengthen the security of the United States and promote world peace.”
Briefly, Cyprus has now been incorporated into the US Defence Security Cooperation Agency’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme, the Excess Defence Articles (EDA) programme, and will be allocated resources under the United States’ ‘Title 10’ security assistance provisions.
Inclusion into FMS will allow Nicosia to purchase military gear directly from the US government, with the country previously having only been able to buy US military hardware through private companies.
As for EDA, this concerns ‘surplus’ materiel. And Title 10 relates to joint training with US forces, dealing with asymmetrical threats, counter-terrorism, and acquisition of patrol boats.
It’s understood that EDA does not include ships, aircraft or strategic weapons (missile systems).
FMS on the other hand, the Cyprus Mail learns, does include heavy weaponry. Whether Nicosia orders them is another question.
From online sources, in 2020 the US military-industry base sold $50.8 billion (€49 billion) through FMS globally and $124.3 billion through Direct Commercial Sales. In 2022 annual sales of US military equipment to foreign governments under the FMS system stood at $51.9 billion, and in 2023 sales spiked to $80.9 billion.
After Biden issued his presidential determination, the government here made much of it.
President Nikos Christodoulides called it “a clear recognition of the Republic of Cyprus as a critical pillar of stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean” and an “undoubtedly decisive development” which “confirms Cyprus’ value on the broader geopolitical chessboard and sends strong messages for the deepening of the strategic cooperation between Cyprus and the United States”.
Christodoulides also said he had discussed this very issue – direct purchases of arms from the US government – during his meeting with Biden at the White House back in October. Sources have since confirmed this to the Cyprus Mail.
The foreign affairs community in Cyprus certainly appears enamored with the development; and they draw a beeline to 2018 when the two nations signed a Statement of Intent on security cooperation.
That agreement was firmed up in Washington DC in November of that year by none other than Christodoulides, in his capacity then as foreign minister.
“Here we see political continuity in foreign policy,” Cypriot diplomatic sources told us.
After the Statement of Intent, there followed in 2019 the East Med Security and Energy Partnership Act, which hinges on the US president of the day certifying each year that Cyprus continues to meet a list of requirements outlined in the act.
“And whose initiative was the East Med Act? Senators Robert Menendez and Marco Rubio.
“The same Rubio now slated to be US Secretary of State under the incoming Trump administration,” the sources stressed, evidently hinting that Cyprus has friends in the new US government taking office on January 20.
Pursuant to the East Med Act, in 2022 the US government lifted its arms embargo on Cyprus that had been in place since 1987. Conditions apply for the waiver: Cyprus must continue to cooperate with the United States on matters such as anti-money laundering regulations and financial regulatory oversight, as well as Cyprus denying Russian military vessels access to its ports for refuelling and servicing.
Whereas the US arms embargo technically remains in force, the diplomatic sources feel that this is not an issue at all. The embargo is waived/suspended once a year by whoever is US president – what the Americans call a “technical rollover” – and our sources sounded confident this would keep happening virtually automatically.
Asked whether the embargo could get in the way of the presidential determination, the sources said no.
We also queried whether practical issues might come up – given that arms typically have to be ordered months in advance, yet every September the US president has to sign the aforementioned embargo waiver. Would this not complicate procurement planning on the Cypriot end?
Again, our sources said no. They appear to believe that the embargo waiver is a foregone conclusion, a mere formality.
“It would take another act of Congress to revoke the East Med Act, on which the conditional lifting of the embargo is based,” they explained.
“The key takeaway is this: the purchase of armaments directly from the US government is the next step in the current positive state of Cyprus-US ties. And more steps will follow.”
On whether Biden’s presidential determination itself can be revoked by a different White House, the sources offered: “Hypothetically yes…but practically it’s very unlikely.”
Our sources were also enthusiastic about the prospects opened up by this latest development.
“Government-to-government is the best way – you make a list of armaments and submit it directly to the US government. It’s faster, and it’s cheaper – since the US government buys its stocks in bulk.
“And under the EDA system specifically, some defence articles are very inexpensive, while others are almost free.”
They cited the example of Greece purchasing at low cost hundreds of Humvees (high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles) from the United States under EDA.
But defence sources we spoke to had a more pragmatic, less exuberant attitude.
We asked the same question, as to whether the US embargo might complicate matters in terms of armaments orders.
“OK with the embargo it’s not an ideal situation…but we can work around it,” we were told.
These sources said: “We can order items, but we have to time it before the waiver ends. And ordering defence articles takes time.
“For instance, it’s a little difficult to order heavy weaponry – as these take more time to deliver. So more convenient to order items such as small arms or gear like army boots which don’t take long to deliver.”
Still, the defence sources underscored the vast possibilities opening up for Cyprus’ National Guard. They spoke of a list of some 4,000 military products now available for purchase directly from US government stockpiles.
Seemingly to pre-empt our next question, the same sources said: “And no, we haven’t gone shopping there yet.”
They added: “We can’t go into details…but obviously Cyprus isn’t going to buy fighter jets or anything like that.”
But they didn’t rule out heavy armoured vehicles.
As for ammunition, the answer is almost certainly yes. The source recalled that the special forces of the National Guard – like the underwater demolitions unit – already use US-made rifles, such as the Colt M5 Carbine.
We next asked whether all this signals that the United States will become the main armaments market for Cyprus.
“No,” we were told. “We have other markets, like France, Israel and Serbia.”
The sources also pointed out that Cyprus has similar government-to-government arrangements with nations other than the United States; they mentioned Israel and Serbia.
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