Egypt Asserts Efforts to Continue Trilateral Cooperation with Cyprus, Greece

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, and Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis after a trilateral summit in Nicosia, Cyprus, Oct. 21, 2020. (Reuters)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, and Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis after a trilateral summit in Nicosia, Cyprus, Oct. 21, 2020. (Reuters)
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Egypt Asserts Efforts to Continue Trilateral Cooperation with Cyprus, Greece

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, and Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis after a trilateral summit in Nicosia, Cyprus, Oct. 21, 2020. (Reuters)
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, and Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis after a trilateral summit in Nicosia, Cyprus, Oct. 21, 2020. (Reuters)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi hailed the growing bilateral cooperation with Cyprus, reflected in the keenness to coordinate stances on regional issues of mutual concern.

Sisi also affirmed Egypt's efforts to activate trilateral cooperation with Cyprus and Greece.

During a phone call with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, Sisi discussed issues of bilateral relations and regional developments, within the framework of common interests and stances in the Eastern Mediterranean region, announced presidential spokesman Bassam Rady.

Egypt has close ties with Greece and Cyprus, and the three countries hold regular summits within the framework of their cooperation in the energy field in the Mediterranean.

Rady indicated that the two leaders discussed cooperation in the field of energy, and exchanged views on the developments of several regional issues.

Last December, the Egyptian President described his country's tripartite cooperation with Greece and Cyprus as an example of good neighbor relations that promote security and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

For his part, the Cypriot president expressed his keenness to coordinate and exchange views with Sisi on all issues of common interests, according to Rady.

Anastasiades hailed the firm and growing relations between Egypt and Cyprus in various fields, affirming his country’s willingness to take further steps to strengthen the ongoing bilateral relations and friendship with Egypt.

The leaders of Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus previously agreed on the necessity of combating “escalation policies” of Turkey in the East Mediterranean, which threaten the stability of the region.

During their tripartite summit in Nicosia last October, the leaders asserted the importance of coordinating with international partners to take measures that maintain the requirements of regional security.

At the end of 2020, the three countries conducted “Medusa 10” joint naval and aerial training on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in Egypt, with the participation of French and Emirati navy, aerial and special forces, as well as observers from Saudi Arabia, US, Bahrain, Sudan, Jordan, Italy, and Germany.


The drill is part of the coordination efforts and joint work to confront the challenges in the Mediterranean region.



Cyprus Leader Becomes First Foreign Dignitary to Visit Lebanon’s New President

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
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Cyprus Leader Becomes First Foreign Dignitary to Visit Lebanon’s New President

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun (R) meets with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides (L), at the presidential palace in Baabda, east of Beirut, Lebanon, 10 January 2025. (EPA)

Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides has become the foreign head of state and first foreign dignitary to pay an official visit to Lebanon's new President Joseph Aoun.

Aoun, the former commander of the Lebanese army, was elected Thursday by the Lebanese parliament to fill a more than two-year vacuum in the presidency.

“I wanted to be the first to visit President Aoun and show, not in words but in actions that Cyprus stands by Lebanon and the Lebanese people,” Christodoulides told reporters afterward.

They discussed energy, security, trade and shipping, his office said in a written statement.

Cyprus and Lebanon have had close relations for decades. In recent years the two countries have been involved in intense discussions over border control, as many Syrian refugees living in Lebanon — and an increasing number of Lebanese since the country's major economic crisis began in 2019 — sought to reach Cyprus by sea in smuggler boats.

Cyprus is less than 200 kilometers (130 miles) from the Lebanese capital Beirut and they share maritime borders in waters where undersea natural gas deposits are believed to lie.