The second part of an extensive newspaper interview, President Nikos Christodoulides has said that the “Mari” naval base near Limassol and the “Andreas Papandreou” base in Paphos could be allocated to the United States or any other country that requests them “for humanitarian use”.
Stating that the “Andreas Papandreou” military base will be modernized and that its cost is 14 million euros, Christodoulides emphasized that the USA, which currently uses this base, is interested in modernizing the base and that he has discussed this issue with some senators from the USA, but the base will be modernized whether the USA helps or not.
Christodoulides stated that the US showed interest in the issue and that the US Embassy informed him in January about the arrival of experts on military bases from the US. He also stated that the US’s assistance to the base could be technical or economic, and argued that in any case, the base in question belongs to the Republic of Cyprus.
Christodoulides stated that he discussed the issue of the naval base with the President of the EU Commission and that they discussed the issue of financing within the framework of an existing EU program in order to host ships from all EU member states.
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.
Christodoulides stated that the bases could be given to the use of not only Western countries but also other countries that want to use them for humanitarian purposes, and he gave as an example the fact that the bases were given to the People’s Republic of China to remove its citizens from the region.
Christodoulides also touched upon the issue of Cypriot officers being trained in US military schools, stating that they have sent four people so far.
Christodoulides, who also touched upon NATO membership in the rest of his interview, stated that the use of bases had nothing to do with advancing towards NATO, and said, “If it were possible, we would immediately become a member of NATO.”
Christodoulides stated that Cyprus should have actually become a member of NATO in 1960, and that the reason it did not become a member was not Turkey, but another country that did not want to lose the advantages it had in Cyprus. He emphasized that since participation was not possible at the moment, they were trying to obtain the advantages, training, reorganization and armament that participation would provide.