AKEL General Secretary Stefanos Stefanou has demanded Cyprus to be free from foreign military bases and repeated his opposition to NATO membership.
In a speech at the EDON Pancyprian Excursion to Troodos, he added that Akel is opposed to the Christodoulides government’s attempts to turn Cyprus into a NATO and American base for ‘imperialist interventions in the bloody region of the Middle East’.
According to CyBC, Stefanou stressed that Akel continues to support a solution on the agreed basis of a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality.
He continues, he said, to stand against those who want to exploit the passage of time to turn the status quo into a solution to the Cyprus problem.
Last week, the Cypriot Minister of Defence said the aim of the arrival of American experts in Cyprus was to provide guidelines for improvement projects at the Andreas Papandreou Air Base in Paphos, so that it can be upgraded and serve more countries and missions.
Vasilis Palmas assured that the base will not become a staging ground for offensive missions by any state, especially the United States.
He said that it will be used for peacekeeping and humanitarian missions, for military training, for exercises, for the transport of personnel and soldiers, but also for docking ships, even warships, as well as submarines.
Palmas also referred to the upgrade that is expected to take place at the Evangelos Florakis naval base in Mari, but, as he said, a financier is currently being sought.
In a recent interview, President Christodoulides once again emphasized that both bases will be the bases of the Republic of Cyprus and that they have no intention of giving bases to anyone.