Cyprus planning to buy patrol ship

Cyprus is pressing ahead with plans to buy an offshore patrol vessel from Israel, reports said on Tuesday.

According to daily Politis, the cabinet is soon to approve €44m for the purchase of a 50m-long ship from Israel.

The vessel’s purpose is to patrol the seas within Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone. It would be neither a gunboat nor a frigate, an unnamed government source was quoted as saying.

It’s understood that neither the coast guard – essentially the marine division of the police – nor the National Guard currently possess vessels with long-range capability and able to navigate rough seas.
In addition, the same paper reported, the government is interested in acquiring two more open-seas patrol vessels from European nations, with France, Italy and Germany named as the potential suppliers.

Direct negotiations between the governments – ensuring the lowest cost – are expected to proceed in 2016.

Also, foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides confirmed that Cyprus is currently in talks on acquiring from the United States two small coast guard vessels as part of the two nations’ collaboration in the fight against terrorism and asymmetric threats.

The minister said moreover the government does not intend to procure armaments from the United States even if the embargo on weapons exports to Cyprus were to be lifted, for the simple reason that the government cannot afford it.

According to published figures, the defence ministry’s budget for 2016 comes to €319m, of which €72m has been set aside for armaments.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.