Filenews 19 May 2022
The terms and conditions are not met and there is no question of a request for Cyprus' accession to NATO at this time, Defence Minister Charalambos Petrides said.
In his statements on the sidelines of a meeting of the Defence Committee of the Parliament, the Minister of Defence initially said that the European Council discussed the state of implementation of the strategic compass and within the European Defence Agency they supported the creation of an innovation hub that will be able to provide flexibility on issues of innovations of defence and security issues, as well as the exclusion of defence expenditure from the fiscal deficit procedure.
Mr. Petrides said that they also supported the simplification of the procedures for joint procurement of defence material, while they were briefed by the Ukrainian Minister of Defence on the war in his country.
The Minister of Defence said, in response to a question, that the crisis of war in Ukraine will be prolonged and several countries appear to continue to send military material to Ukraine.
Asked about Greece's defence agreements with the US, Mr. Petrides said that the strengthening of Greece's positions, defensive or diplomatic, is positive news for Cyprus as well.
As far as NATO is concerned, he continued, we see how Turkey is reacting to the accession of Finland and Sweden. Therefore, there is no question and there is currently no discussion of a request for Cyprus' accession to NATO, he said in response to a question. He added that in order for Cyprus to join NATO, some terms and conditions must be met and at this point there is no such issue.
CNA
