Cyprus and France sign up for military cooperation

Cyprus and France this week signed a bilateral military cooperation programme during a visit to Paris by defence minister Savvas Angelides.

According to a press release, Angelides completed his visit to the French capital where he held a series of meetings with his French counterpart Florence Palry, Chairman of the Defence Committee Jean-Jacques Bridey and the President of the Cyprus-France Friendship Group in the French National Assembly Sarh El Hairy.

During the meetings, “the continued enhancement of ties between Cyprus and France in the area of security and defence was reconfirmed, while Cyprus’ geostrategic role as a pillar of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean region was highlighted,” the press release said.

No details of the cooperation programme were given.

Cyprus decided to join the EU’s Permanent Structured Cooperation (Pesco) two days after President Nicos Anastasiades saw French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris in November 2017.

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.