Greek Foreign Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis and Syria’s interim Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani in a meeting in Athens discussed a possible regional cooperation including Cyprus, the Greek foreign minstry said in an announcement on Wednesday.

“[The ministers] confirmed their will to promote regional cooperation by establishing a trilateral format with the participation of the Republic of Cyprus,” said the Greek foreign ministry’s spokesperson, Lana Zochiou.

A first meeting of the three parties, the spokesperson said, could take place at the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly set to be held in New York from September 9 to September 29.

Concrete measures outlining how the proposed trilateral cooperation will take shape have yet to be announced.

Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos in May emphasised that Cyprus was “actively pursuing good neighbourly relations” with Syria and reiterated his backing for the lifting of sanctions on the country, which, at just around 350km away, lies even closer to Cyprus than Greece.

In April 2024, amid what Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou described as an “alarming” rise in arrivals of asylum seekers and irregular migrants to Cyprus, Cyprus initiated a group of European Union members focusing on the possibility of declaring parts of Syria safe.

In a meeting with Greek Migration Minister Dimitris Kairidis, Ioannou later stressed the need for “joint actions” to better manage the situation, with Greece subsequently announcing its intention to join the Cyprus-led EU Syria Group.

In this context, an international meeting of interior ministers was held in Cyprus in mid-May 2024, bringing together ministers from Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Malta and Poland.