Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades came together to Nicosia and signed a joint cooperation declaration that has been hailed by the three leaders as “historical”. The three leaders pledged closer cooperation in seven fields: energy, tourism, research and technology, environment, water management, anti-terrorism and migration.
The three countries decided to form a trilateral committee to examine the possibility of laying a gas pipeline from Israel to Cyprus, and then to Greece for export further on in Europe, while they are working on creating an “interconnected underwater cable” to connect their electricity grids.
The joint declaration includes also clauses to political issues. A clause expressing support for the unification of Cyprus and backing the UN efforts to solve the Cyprus-Turkish dispute as well as support for resuming of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
The joint declaration stressed that this new axis is not exclusive, and – in a nod to Egypt and even Turkey – stated that the three countries would gladly welcome other states that have similar goals into the alliance.
Israeli PM Netanyahu told reporters Israel’s current gas capabilities are capable of handling pipelines going both to Egypt and to Turkey.
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