FRESH AIR
Israel courts new ties with Greece and Cyprus at Summit
Jun 19, 2017 | Ross Beroff
On June 15, trilateral talks concluded between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. On the meetings, Netanyahu remarked, “there’s a simple fact about Cyprus, Greece and Israel that brings us very close together. We’re all democracies, real democracies.”
A large focus of the talks was energy, include promoting the idea of the EastMed pipeline, which would connect the three nations plus Italy. In regards to the potential energy related projects, Tsipras noted, “We agreed to expedite our joint actions concerning our agreement on the construction of a large project which will offer new prospects of economic cooperation in the eastern Mediterranean.”
Additional agreements were made to promote and increase student exchanges between the countries. A goal of these exchanges is to “forge together the culture of innovation,” Netanyahu continued, “I was struck by the dedication of Cyprus and Greece to go in this direction as well. We are partners in the future.”
This was the third trilateral summit for the participating nations, and is likely to be just one in many.
Tags: Europe