Cyprus Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides believes that the lifting of the embargo “has political and diplomatic importance”.
Cyprus does not intend to acquire American arms even after the U.S. authorities’ decision to lift the arms embargo on the republic. This was announced on Saturday by the head of the Cypriot Foreign Ministry, Nikos Christodoulides.
On Friday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a bill approved by Congress on the defense budget for fiscal year 2020, which, in particular, provides for the lifting of the ban on the supply of American arms to Cyprus. It was introduced in 1987 to discourage an arms race on a divided island.
According to Christodoulides, quoted by the Cyprus News Agency, the lifting of the embargo “has political and diplomatic significance”. Foreign Minister noted that cooperation between Nicosia and Washington is “based on a positive agenda” and “not directed against third countries. He also stressed that the Cypriot authorities had “no intention or decision” to purchase American weapons.
According to Christodulides, the lifting of the embargo indicates a new approach of Washington to the problems of the Eastern Mediterranean. He reminded that since 2013, Cyprus has been trying to ensure that the U.S. does not build cooperation with the republic taking into account its partnership with Turkey. Recently, they have been exacerbated by Ankara’s purchase of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems from Moscow.
According to the newspaper Cyprus Mail, one of the conditions for lifting the U.S. embargo was a demand on Nicosia not to allow Russian warships in their ports for refueling and maintenance.
Commenting on the implications of the Washington decision for the bilateral relations between Cyprus and Russia, Christodulides said that “in 2020 we should expect concrete development of bilateral relations with Russia.