NICOSIA (Reuters) -Cyprus on Thursday hailed U.S. President Joe Biden’s memorandum allowing military sales, including arms, to the island as a milestone affirming recognition as a pillar of stability in the east Mediterranean region which has been fraught with conflict.
With a tiny military and no air force, the defence arsenal of the internationally recognised government in the ethnically divided island is modest, with ageing military hardware mainly supplied in the past by now sanctions-hit Russia.
Its military is outnumbered by a better equipped army in its breakaway north, propped up politically and militarily by Turkey.
The island was under a U.S. arms embargo from 1987 until 2020 because of its ethnic division, and a deepening in ties between the U.S.
and Cyprus has been closely followed by Turkey, which in September criticised them signing a roadmap to boost defence co-operation.
Wednesday’s decree also reinforces a significant pivot of Cyprus to the West.
Long viewed as under the sphere of Russian influence, ties with Moscow have cooled significantly in recent years, and particularly after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“This (memorandum) is a clear recognition of the Republic of Cyprus as a pillar of stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean, with the potential to further contribute to peace and the management of humanitarian challenges,” the Cypriot presidency said in a statement.
The foreign ministry of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot administration in northern Cyprus said the U.S.
decision showed Cyprus’ internationally recognised Greek government would “continue its arms race as if it were preparing for war”.
“We call on the countries that support the warmongering of the Greek Cypriot side to act by calculating the consequences of these actions and to be sensible,” the statement said, adding it would keep taking steps with Turkey to protect the security of its citizens.
Konstantinos Leymbiotis, spokesperson of Cyprus’ Greek Cypriot-led government, said Nicosia’s focus was purely defensive.
“Cyprus has been under occupation for more than 50 years and more than 40,000 Turkish troops are here illegally. Cyprus is on a defence footing,” he said.
The 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus followed a brief Greek-inspired coup after years of sporadic violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots that had led to the collapse of a power-sharing administration in 1963.
(Reporting by Michele Kambas; Additional reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun in Istanbul; Editing by Michael Perry, Hugh Lawson and Alison Williams)
