The Christodoulides government has a tendency of treating everything as theatre. On Friday, after the news of Israel’s air strikes on Iran, the government spokesman posted on ‘X’ that “taking into account the latest developments in the broader region and within the framework of the continuous operational readiness, the President of the Republic had called for today at 17.00 an extraordinary meeting of the National Security Council.”

In most countries, a meeting about matters of national security is not advertised, because for obvious reasons security issues are usually kept out of the public domain. Not under this president, who had someone film him making a statement about the agenda of the meeting before it started, informing us that three issues would be discussed. These were the current situation, the Estia plan for the evacuation of foreign nationals via Cyprus and the stepping up of security measures domestically, which was why the chief of police and national guard chief were also attending the meeting.

As if this information was not enough, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis continued the theatrical approach to national security by carrying out a post-meeting briefing of journalists in which he tried, as is government policy, to play up the role of Cyprus. We were in contact with all our international partners for the de-escalation of the crisis in our region and our stabilising role will increase within the bounds of our capabilities, he said. What was of greatest importance at this time, said Letymbiotis, was regional security and Cyprus, as the closest member-state of the EU in the region, will contribute in every possible way to the efforts for the de-escalation of the crisis.

So the National Security Council’s primary concern was not so much the security of the country but the role Cyprus could play in the de-escalation of the crisis, because it is the closest EU member-state in the region. It is astonishing that in these critical times the government is more concerned about marketing its alleged international role to the domestic audience. We are to believe that because we are close to Israel we can contribute to the de-escalation of the crisis more than member-states like France, Germany, Italy and Spain which are not in the region. By Letymbiotis’ logic, the United States is too far away to have a vital role in the de-escalation effort.

What is truly astonishing is that while this government has branded Cyprus as pillar of regional stability and security and claims to have a say in the geo-strategic events in the region, it does not seem to be concerned in any way about the country’s own security. It does not seem to understand – or does not want to – that as long as there is a Turkish occupation army in the north of the island, we will have no security in the strict sense of the word and much less so at times of uncertainty like the present. Again, we hear the government talk about its important geostrategic role and creating a defence industry as if this could ever redress the staggering imbalance of power with Turkey.

This is the Turkey that has close ties with Iran, has ambitions of regional control and the autocratic president of which is on very good terms with President Donald Trump whose unpredictability in world affairs is well-known. Add to this the cost-cutting by the UN, which could lead to the withdrawal of the UN peacekeeping force from Cyprus in the not very distant future and any talk about a pillar of security becomes pretty hollow.

What has been happening in our region in the last couple of years, with a war between Israel and Iran now raging, makes all the government talk about security meaningless. When things are as out of control as they are now anything can trigger a new crisis. And no country will come to Cyprus’ defence if President Erdogan decides that a military incident on the island suits his plans. This is why our government should put aside the illusions about its stabilising role and be focusing exclusively on securing a settlement of the Cyprus problem as soon as possible. This is the only way Cyprus can ever become a pillar of regional stability and security.