Ireland supports all efforts to seek a resolution of the Cyprus problem, in accordance with the original UN resolutions and processes, which would bring immense benefits to Cyprus, the Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence of Ireland, Thomas Byrne, told CNA on Tuesday, in the context of his recent three-day visit to Cyprus, as Ireland will succeed Cyprus at the Presidency of the Council of the EU in the second half of 2026.
He also highlighted the need for the EU to understand the specificities of all Member States in terms of security and defence, while strengthening relations with key trade partners and at the same time diversifying its trade strategies.
Asked about the significance of his visit to Cyprus, the Irish Minister of State said it is a very important visit, particularly with Cyprus taking on the presidency of the Council of the European Union next year, adding that it is always good to visit Cyprus as the two countries are so close on many issues, ‘sharing so much in our history and in our modern day attitude to the world as well’.
He further noted that Ireland has a big connection with Cyprus through its involvement with the United Nations and he himself met some of Irish police officers stationed in Cyprus.
He added that his schedule included meetings with the Committee of Missing Persons, UN officials, Deputy Minister for European Affairs Marilena Raouna, the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, Haris Georgiades, as well as a meeting with the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, who, he said, knows well from his time as Foreign Minister and his participation at the Council of EU Ministers and with whom he had some very good engagements.
Asked about Ireland’s priorities as it will be taking over from Cyprus in view of the next EU Presidency Trio, Byrne referred first to the Multiannual Financial Framework, which, as he said, is going to be a major focus of their work.
‘It is going to be a big feature of the Presidency of the Republic of Cyprus and indeed of our own Presidency as well because that is the timeline for the negotiation. It means there is a lot of work to do during that time. For us in Ireland to advance our own national interests before we take on the Presidency I think is important and we did make some of those points to Minister Raouna this morning, but it is a big piece of work so there is a major priority to achieve that’, he explained.
Security and defence in all its facets is obviously a major European priority, a major priority of the Member States as well, he continued, adding that ‘it is very important from an Irish point of view and indeed from a Presidency point of view to understand the specificities of all the Member States’.
‘There are different issues on the Russian border, which is obviously a grave threat from Russia really to all of us in many respects, but also you have your own circumstances here on the Eastern Mediterranean too. We have to be cognisant of all the circumstances that Member States face and we will certainly endeavour to do that during our Presidency’, he further stressed, adding that notwithstanding the fact that Ireland is not a member of NATO, it will ‘certainly be acting as an honest broker and pushing forward the agenda of the Member States who quite simply want to protect their citizens’.
Asked whether Ireland is planning to take advantage of the SAFE initiative, Byrne said that is a possibility, however at this moment Ireland is not taking loans.
‘We may do some cooperation but we do not at this point in time need to take loans. We are increasing our defence spending significantly anyway from our own resources and we want more interconnection, more interoperability with other European Defence Forces’, he noted.
‘We already have that in some of the peacekeeping missions that we undertake and we work closely through Partnership for Peace and are deeply cognisant of what Member States are going through. There is a threat from Russia that we face ourselves, not in the context of a land invasion but in the context of threats to cables and threats to the information space and to the public sphere. We have to be cognisant of that and take action at a European level’, he further explained.
‘I think the concept of defence needs to be quite broad. There is defence material that people need to have and to build up their stocks of, we absolutely accept and understand that and we are doing that ourselves, but we have to think more as well about the whole area of cyber security, the whole area of the resilience of our citizens in the face of crisis that can be caused by adverse actors , the issue of the cables as well and the information space, so that is really important’, he stressed in that regard.
Asked whether there a message by the Irish government concerning the efforts to resume the negotiations process on the Cyprus problem at the United Nations level, Byrne said that the Irish government supports all efforts to seek a resolution to the issue, in accordance with the original UN resolutions and processes.
‘I think that is very important and certainly a message that I gave to the President and the Minister when I met them, it is mainly a UN process. I think if the issues can be resolved in accordance with what we know to be the will of the global community, that would bring immense benefits to Cyprus and I have no doubt about that’, he noted.
Asked about recent developments in the Middle East, the Irish Minister of State said that the American peace proposal has been released and there was an initial welcoming reaction from the Irish government but also from some Arab and Islamic countries.
‘I think that is very important and it is very important that Hamas signs up to this. This is too important to allow an organisation like Hamas to stop it. We must look at all genuine peace efforts, no peace process will be perfect, we know that in Ireland more than anybody, but we must give peace and people a chance and ultimately our belief and our faith is in a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine’, he underlined.
He remined that Ireland was the first Western country to advocate for that back in 1980. ‘It has been a long-standing principle of Irish foreign policy that Israel and Palestine should be allowed to live side by side in peace and in security and that the people of Israel and the people of Palestine can have futures and protection in those futures. So we certainly support any efforts to secure peace and President Trump’s efforts are very welcome’, he added.
Asked whether he is worried about the way trade relations or trade competition could affect the European economy as a whole, Byne said that uncertainty is the enemy of economic development, therefore anything that brings certainty is welcome.
‘We welcomed the agreement reached between the European Union and the United States which is holding and that has given some certainty. Ireland is very much an export-led economy and we need that certainty in our relations with the rest of the world’, he said.
He added that at the same time, it is important that Europe diversifies its trade strategies too and work with Southeast Asian countries and other friends, including in Africa and South America, as best it can to ensure that European products can have the widest possible markets, with Canada being another country with which a trade agreement was concluded and implemented and Europe can do a lot more business with.
‘These are important countries but America is a very important country too and we certainly place great store in really positive relations with the United States. We want to see relations with Britain normalised as much as possible and that process has accelerated under the Starmer administration and this (European) Commission. We welcome that and certainly we expect during the Cyprus Presidency and the Presidency of Ireland of the Council of the EU that relations with the UK would be a big feature and we certainly encourage the work of the European Commission in this respect’, he stressed on the issue.
Asked about the relationship with the UK and what Ireland’s experience with Brexit has been so far, the Irish Minister of State said that the experience since the Keir Starmer government came in has been positive.
‘They have a new openness they want to do things that will benefit them and ultimately benefit all of us. We have always said that we need the closest possible relations with the UK, that is the position, we maintain that bilaterally as well. We have our own summit with the UK and our own arrangements under the Good Friday Agreement as well with this cross-border cooperation and east-west cooperation’, he explained.
‘Any move towards bringing the European Union closer to the UK would be welcomed by us and that has happened in the area of security and defence, which we very much welcome, and we certainly hope that either during Cyprus’s Presidency or Ireland’s Presidency that a an SPS agreement, as envisaged by the recent EU-UK agreement, can in fact be put together and finalised and that I think would bring would bring great benefits to all of us’, he concluded.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.