Cyprus, Egypt, Greece Mull Energy Cooperation, Call for Palestinian State
Cyprus, Egypt and Greece agreed to increase economic ties and business relations, while joining forces to tackle terrorism in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the Middle East. This unity message arrived a few hours after Höegh LNG announced that its Floating Storage and Regas Unit (FSRU) commenced commercial operations with Egypt’s Egas.
“We reaffirmed that the tripartite cooperation and dialogue promotes peace, stability, safety and prosperity in the Eastern Mediterranean” Cyprus’ President Nicos Anastasiades commented in a note on Thursday, after the Second Tripartite Summit Meeting.
He explained that the cooperation of the three countries is mainly focused on politics, finance and trade, but does not exclude energy issues.
“We reaffirmed once again our common understanding that the discovery of significant hydrocarbon deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean can and must operate as a catalyst for the wider cooperation on a regional level.”
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras made similar remarks, agreeing on consultations on demarcation of their maritime zones.
The Hellenic head of state also underlined the common interest in increasing stability in the region.
‘We are gravely concerned over the deterioration of the security situation in Libya and the growing terrorist threat therein also affecting security and stability in neighbouring countries. Therefore, we strongly support the implementation of a counter-terrorist strategy in parallel to the political dialogue and reconciliation process and the implementation of the relevant Security Council resolutions’ Athens wrote in a separate communiqué.
According to an article published by Reuters on Wednesday, Libyan protesters have closed an eastern gas field and moved closer to shut down the western Wafa oil and gas field. That would lead to a stop in gas exports to Italy.
Greece also pushed for a solution of the Palestinian issue, saying that the lack of developments is one of the factor leading to fundamentalism in the region. The three countries said that the Palestinian state should be established as soon as possible, ‘on the territories occupied since 4 June 1967’ and East Jerusalem should be the capital.
Bilateral and trilateral cooperation seems to emerge as the designed form of cooperation between countries amid global, regional and local instabilities. For instance, Budapest and Minsk clinched a deal on Wednesday.
‘Hungary has agreed on a five-point action plan with Belarus with a view to exploring the opportunities inherent in bilateral economic cooperation’ the Hungarian government reported on its website.