Former Greek deputy foreign minister Tasos Chatzivasileiou on Wednesday night called on the European Union and its member states to “not forget” Cyprus in conversations concerning the future of defence in Europe.
Speaking at an interparliamentary summit on the future of Europe’s defence policy in Copenhagen, he stressed that it is “time to send a collective message that we are ready to defend common European values ourselves”.
He added that any decisions regarding the strengthening of the continent’s defence industry must “take into account the interests of all member states, including Greece and Cyprus”.
“At the end of the day, we are a union. Let us not forget that,” he said.
He then returned to the matter of Cyprus, calling on his colleagues to “not forget that beyond the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Turkey continues to illegally occupy the northern part of the island since 1974”.
His comments came after his successor Ioannis Loverdos visited Cyprus, and told President Nikos Christodoulides that Greece “will always be an assistant to Cyprus in whatever it needs and with whatever it can offer”, including with regards to the Cyprus problem.
The Cyprus problem, he added, is “not a bilateral difference of opinion between Greece and Turkey”, but “an international issue which concerns the United Nations and the European Union primarily, but also all the actors of the international community”.
“This must be understood by everyone, that it is an issue which goes beyond relations between Turkey and Greece. It is an issue on which we must all work in the direction of implementing the UN’s resolutions,” he said.
The Cypriot government is involving itself in Europe’s defence plans, having last month given the European Union notice of its intention to participate in the €150 billion Security Action for Europe (Safe) common procurement instrument.
With that notice having been submitted, Cyprus and the EU’s other 26 member states are expected to submit a detailed implementation plan by the end of November, including details of the specific programmes under the Safe umbrella in which each member state wishes to participate.
If those plans are accepted by the EU, the procedures for disbursing money fore the procurement of hardware will begin.
The defence ministry’s procurement director Panayiotis Hadjipavlis had said last month that the government was “in contact with very friendly member states”, including Greece, over the matter, “so that we can find common programmes and thus proceed with joint procurement”.
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