‘We can sign agreements with who we want’

THE government was yesterday dismissive of Turkey’s strong reaction to an agreement signed between Cyprus and France on mutual assistance in the field of defense.
The technical co-operation agreement, signed earlier in the week in Paris by Foreign Minister George Lillikas and French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie, will see the exchange of experiences between the two countries’ militaries.

It provides for the training of Cypriot officers in French military academies, and joint training and exercises between the Cypriot Coast Guard and the French air force and navy in combating illegal immigration in the eastern Mediterranean.
“It is not a defence pact,” Eric Sanson, charg? d’affaires at the French Embassy in Nicosia, told the Mail yesterday.

He said the two countries had worked together in the past in the same fields, and that Wednesday’s agreement was merely the formalisation of that prior co-operation.
Last summer, the two countries co-ordinated their actions in repatriating hundreds of French nationals that had been stranded in Lebanon during the hostilities there.
“This is a standard agreement we have with many other European countries, and it was time we signed one with the Republic of Cyprus,” added Sanson.
He declined to comment on the Turkish government’s reaction to the announcement of the agreement.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry released a lengthy statement, in which it said the “administration in the south” did not represent Cyprus and thus had no right to sign such agreements.
The agreement, it added, would encourage the Greek Cypriots to become more intransigent on the Cyprus issue and contribute to “instability in the region”.
“The Republic has every legal right to enter into agreements with foreign countries, without requiring Turkey’s prior approval,” Government Spokesman Christodoulos Pashardis said yesterday.

“Still, it would have been a surprise had Turkey not reacted,” he added.
The agreement was also welcomed by opposition leader Nicos Anastassiades.

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.