Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu, President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades and Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras.
First Cyprus-Israel-Greece tripartite meeting in Nicosia On 28 January 2016.
President Nicos Anastasiades, the Prime Minister of Greece Alexis Tsipras and the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu presided over the first Cyprus-Greece-Israel Trilateral Summit in Nicosia.
A joint declaration was adopted forming the foundation of the cooperation between the three countries, including, inter alia, in the fields of energy, tourism, research and technology, the environment, water management, terrorism and migration.
Within the framework of the summit a Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation in the field of Water Resources Management among the three countries was signed by the three respective ministers of Agriculture.
In remarks to the press after the trilateral meeting, President Anastasiades highlighted that “the objective of the trilateral cooperation is the promotion of peace, stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean, through the substantive and practical strengthening of our joint ventures in all the fields of cooperation and therefore it was not and it is not possible for this cooperation of ours to be directed against any other country.”
Characterizing the Joint Declaration that was adopted by the three countries a really historic document, the President also remarked that the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding in the field of Water Resources Management, is a tangible and practical example and step of the cooperation between the three countries.
On his part the Israeli Prime Minister pointed out, inter alia, that during the Trilateral Meeting the leaders discussed the issue of natural gas “and we decided to explore this in a very audacious way, to form a trilateral Committee between Greece, Cyprus and Israel to plan the possibility of a pipeline that would take our common resources of gas and export it to Europe via Greece. A pipeline from Israel, Cyprus through Greece to Europe. This goes along side our other plans vis-à-vis the exploitation of the energy recourses. The second thing that we are embarking on is creating an interconnecting underwater cable to connect the electricity grids of Israel, Cyprus and later on Greece.”
Mr Netanyahu concluded that “We can pledge that our trilateral cooperation will help bring the blessings of progress not only to the citizens of our three democracies but also perhaps to the wider region by helping stability, security, prosperity and peace.”
In his own remarks, the Greek Prime Minister said that “we had today a very substantive discussion: we agreed on the opportunities and the possibilities for a close cooperation; we identified fields of common interest where we can implement joint programs in order to have immediate, practical results; we agreed on the formation of a tripartite joint working and coordinating group with regard to the critical field of energy; we agreed to press on with energy networks that will strengthen the energy security of our countries, but also that of the broader region.”
Photography by the Press and Information Office – Republic of Cyprus.
