Christodoulides-Dendias discuss Defence Council, Cyprus issue, regional developments
President of the Republic held a meeting Monday afternoon with and the Greek Minister of National Defence, Nikos Dendias with whom he discussed the developments in security and defence issues that emerged from the EU Defence Ministers’ Council, developments in the Cyprus issue following the meeting he had earlier with the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, as well as regional developments.
Welcoming Dendias to the Presidential Palace, President Christodoulides said that Dendias was arriving from an ‘important Council meeting, considering both the broader developments and the fact that the EU is finally addressing security and defense issues.’
According to the President, everyone in the EU has now realized the need to strengthen its strategic autonomy, beginning with defense and security matters. “We will discuss this issue as well as regional developments,” he said.
In addition, he noted that he would brief the Greek Minister on the Cyprus issue. ‘Today we had a very important meeting with the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General. We will discuss all these matters, and I have also seen a statement from the Turkish Presidency, so we will discuss that as well, in relation to yesterday,’ he said, referring to the incident involving the harassment of the Minister’s aircraft by Turkish fighter jets.
On his part, Nikos Dendias said that he was taking the opportunity to congratulate President Christodoulides on Cyprus’ Presidency of the Council of the European Union, ‘for the way in which a small country managed, for six months, to exercise the Presidency of the EU with great success, leading this unified area of hundreds of millions of inhabitants.’
He also added praised his Cypriot counterpart, Vasilis Palmas for the way he handled the demands of the Council. Palmas ” carried out his duties as President of the Council of Defence Ministers exceptionally well, resulting in a very substantive discussion today on issues of our common security, as you mentioned earlier, something that is of great importance to both Greece and Cyprus,” the Minister said.
He also referred to the creation of a unified defence area, the development of a common EU defence concept, the coordination of defence programs, and the enhancement of defence capabilities, ‘so that we can safeguard this unique area of democracy and protection of human rights that is the European Union.’