European Union member states must strengthen cooperation between each other on the matter of defence, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Sunday.
He was asked about his position on the joint venture announced by Italian weapons manufacturer Leonardo and its Turkish counterpart Baykar to produce unmanned aerial vehicles, and stressed that the deal is not an aberration, but called for the EU’s states to attempt to produce more in-house.
“This is not the first time that Turkey has cooperated with EU member states on defence equipment, and Turkey is doing whatever it needs to do for its own interests, to strengthen its defence industry,” he began.
He added, “the same goes for Italy and other member states”, and that the country with the “closest defence cooperation” with Turkey is Spain, followed by Italy in second place.
“What I said is that EU money in relation to investment in this sector, and this is something that is a common belief and a common result of the discussion which took place, must strengthen European defence cooperation.
“Because, as the EU, if we continue to depend on third countries in relation to our defence, our energy, our raw materials, we will never achieve our goal of strategic autonomy.”
Turning his attention to the forthcoming enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem which is set to take place in Geneva on March 17 and March 18, he reiterated his comments from his meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens on Saturday that he is going to the meeting “with a specific plan”.
“We have specific proposals which we will submit at the discussion table,” he added.
He went on to say the bilateral meetings he will have in Geneva, “especially” with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, are “of decisive importance”.
“What is the choice before us? To continue talking about Turkish intransigence or to do everything possible for our part to end the occupation and reunify our homeland? At the end of the day, our homeland is under occupation, so we must, at the very least, do everything possible,” he said.
On Saturday in Athens, Christodoulides had said he is going to Geneva “with a clear plan, a clear design”.
“We know very well what we want to achieve, and that is nothing more than the resumption of talks from where they were interrupted in the summer of 2017,” he added.
He went on to say that the talks must “build on the achievements of those talks and go ahead with the sole aim of resolving the Cyprus problem on the basis of the agreed framework – the principles and values of the EU”.
Meanwhile, Mitsotakis had expressed his appreciation for Christodoulides’ “overall efforts to keep this dialogue alive, to achieve, at last, a just and sustainable solution to the Cyprus problem”.
“I want you to know that Greece, to the extent to which it is responsible, will participate and will always support these efforts of yours,” he said.
On Friday, both Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar met the UK’s minister of state for Europe Stephen Doughty.
Comments made after Christodoulides’ meeting with Doughty largely steered clear of the Cyprus problem and instead focused on relations between Cyprus and the UK, while Tatar had spoken after the meeting of a will to cooperate with the Greek Cypriot side while not negotiating with them.
