Cyprus is ‘key strategic partner’

“Cyprus is a key partner in a challenging region, (but) it can be an even stronger partner if the next generation of Cypriots can grow up without the burden of conflict,” said US Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday night before leaving Cyprus, the Cyprus Mail reports.

Biden ended his two-day visit to the island with rousing words despite the absence of any concrete announcement on the much-hyped confidence-building measures (CBMs).

“Cyprus can be a growing force for peace, prosperity and stability in the eastern Mediterranean. And that would benefit the world. That would benefit us all,” he said.

Earlier he led a US delegation including Amos Hochstein, deputy assistant secretary for energy diplomacy, in a bilateral meeting with Anastasiades and his ministers of finance, energy and foreign affairs, the undersecretary to the president, government spokesman and Cypriot ambassador to Washington. The meeting lasted almost an hour and a half and was followed by lunch.

In the afternoon, Biden met with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu for an hour in the north. Following their meeting, Eroglu told reporters the two discussed the Cyprus problem, natural gas and confidence-building measures (CBMs) in general. “The name Varosha did not come up,” he said.

After spending some time with members of the business community and civil society from both communities, Biden hosted a dinner for the two leaders and UN Special Representative Lisa Buttenheim at Nicosia’s Chateau Status in the buffer zone.

Afterwards Biden said he was “truly impressed by the cordiality and ease with which both leaders speak to one another and negotiate with one another”. He said the two shared common ground on certain aspects and differences on others, but not “irreconcilable” differences. “There’s clearly a lot of work to be done but what I’m hearing gives me hope that a solution is within reach this time.”

Biden said that the two leaders had reaffirmed their full commitment to the joint declaration, had agreed to speed up the process for a comprehensive settlement agreeing to meet at least twice a month, and agreed to intensify work on preparing meaningful CBMs.

“For our part the US will engage with all stakeholders to explore mutually beneficial initiatives to reinforce settlement negotiations,” he said. He added that the US encourages the leaders to discuss a package on Varosha and Famagusta and that “if the two sides were to agree on this, the US would stand ready to assist on implementation.”

The US also wants to see “quick and substantial progress” on core issues to lead the talks to the final phase, though ultimately, he warned, “the solution cannot come from outside” but from the two leaders and from the “compelling voices” of civil society.

Earlier in the day at the Presidential Palace, Biden highlighted in a toast that time and circumstances have given Cyprus a significant role to play in the region.

“You are emerging as a leader in the region and Cyprus is poised to become a key player in the Eastern Mediterranean” transforming it into a new global hub for natural gas and markets, he said, adding, “You are uniquely situated at a critical time in modern history.” He repeated the position that Cyprus is a “genuine strategic partner” of the US, cooperating on all the “biggest issues of the day” including Syria’s chemical weapons, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and the Ukraine crisis.

“This is not just a strategic partnership, it’s a growing partnership,” he said, adding that the two countries could achieve even more with a Cyprus solution.


Varosha demands were made ‘in bad faith’

Efforts to clinch a deal during the US Vice President’s visit that would allow experts to enter Varosha and study its condition collapsed because the Turkish Cypriot leadership tried to “humiliate” the Greek Cypriots, with Ankara’s backing, Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides said.

According to Kasoulides, a necessary first step for the return of Famagusta would be to allow experts to enter the fenced area and study how infrastructure works could begin, looking at electricity, water supply, sewage, roads, pavements etc. The next phase would be to study whether the buildings are safe to live in so that the legitimate residents of Varosha could eventually return to their properties. Experts could also undertake studies to upgrade Famagusta port, he added.

“It was not possible to agree by the Vice President’s visit due to certain demands of the Turkish Cypriots which for us were not only unacceptable but also made in bad faith. They wanted to humiliate us with the inclusion of a special reference that these international experts could be foreign or Turkish Cypriot, but explicitly not Greek Cypriot,” he said.

Kasoulides said the Greek Cypriot side would have been happy to accept internationals only or foreign experts assisted by both Greek and Turkish Cypriots working together. “We never demanded that the experts be either Greek Cypriot or Turkish Cypriot, but we cannot accept that Greek Cypriots are forbidden in an area which is purely Greek,” he said.

Kasoulides also expressed his disappointment with Ankara’s stance, saying that while Turkish officials declare their willingness for a solution of the Cyprus problem, at the same time, they do not put their words into practice.

Kasoulides also insisted that relations with Russia have not been harmed in any way by the enhanced Cyprus-US relations. “Russia respects Cyprus’ right to exercise its foreign policy within the EU, where we belong.”

Government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides confirmed that “intense negotiations” were held in the last two weeks on Famagusta, with the US playing a leading role in contacts with Ankara and the Turkish Cypriots. He said Biden tried very hard to get something specific on Famagusta while here but it did not prove possible.

“The US Vice President saw firsthand the stance of the Turkish side,” said Christodoulides, adding it was important for the Americans to see which side adopts a constructive stance, and who’s creating obstacles.

“We got close to an agreement that would have allowed the gradual implementation of the president’s proposal but the Turkish side’s stance was clear. The aim was not to promote the measures, but other objectives that we were not prepared to follow.”

A choice between Russia and the US

An editorial in the Cyprus Mail says the real significance of US Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Cyprus lie in Biden’s comments that Cyprus is a “genuine strategic partner” of the US, that it “is emerging as a key partner in a challenging region” and that it “is poised to become a key player in the Eastern Mediterranean.” Secretary of State John Kerry also spoke about the strategic partnership when he met Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides in Washington less than two weeks ago; he too is scheduled to visit Cyprus later in the year.

Many people, quite understandably, found it difficult, if not impossible, to take these words seriously, wondering whether he was pulling our leg. Why on earth would the superpower pay lip service to a partnership with a tiny and powerless state with a collapsed economy that requires financial assistance from abroad to stay afloat? It would appear that Cyprus has become central to the US plans for the region which are directly linked to hydrocarbons and the new Cold War between the West and Russia.

AKEL chief Andros Kyprianou may have been repeating his party’s traditional prejudices when he said the main concern of Biden’s visit was energy and the Ukraine crisis, but he was right.

Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis offered a plausible explanation of US plans. “The Americans see Cyprus not only as an alternative supply source, but potentially an alternative corridor of energy supply.” During the talks in Nicosia on Thursday, the Americans discussed the need to reduce the EU’s energy dependence on its traditional supplier, said Lakkotrypis, obviously referring to Russia.

Natural gas deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean may be small by comparison to Russia’s but the US still feels that by providing the EU with an “alternative corridor of energy supply”, it could limit Moscow’s energy dominance in Europe. But for the US energy plans for the region to succeed there must be a settlement of the Cyprus problem so that the co-operation of all the countries in the region would be secured. The “alternative corridor” would not be possible without a settlement, hence the US interest in the peace talks and Biden’s assurance that “Cyprus can be an even stronger partner (of the US) if the next generation of Cypriots can grow up without the burden of conflict.”

When we put all this together, the real significance of the Vice President’s visit becomes apparent. Cyprus is at the centre of the US plans for the region which would be used to counter Russia’s domination of the energy sector. There has to be a settlement for Cyprus to be able to perform the regional role the Americans envisage. But before all this happens we would have to make a choice, which might not have been explicitly mentioned by Biden but is inevitable in the very near future. Cyprus will have to choose between the US and Russia because being strategic partners of both is impossible in the current world climate. Biden’s visit, it could be said, was aimed at helping us make the right decision.

Coffeeshop: We’re missing the message. Give up on the Russians

The Cyprus Mail’s satirical column Coffeeshop says that everyone is wondering what the purpose of Biden’s visit was. There was no announcement about Famagusta or any other confidence-building measures, as had been expected; nor was there any suggestion of a US initiative with regard to the Cyprob. Had he come all the way to Kyproulla, with 400 security people in tow just to take the piss out of us? How else should we have interpreted his assertions that we were a “strategic partner” of the US and his claim that “you are emerging as a leader in the region and Cyprus is poised to become a key player in the Eastern Mediterranean?”

The strategic partnership kept coming up at the meeting at the presidential palace between the two delegations, but our government seemed unable to grasp what Biden and his lieutenants were actually hinting at. It raised mundane issues such as the issuing of visas, the violation of our EEZ by the Turks and the need to open Famagusta.

Biden’s interest, according to our mole, was to get us on side because of the growing rivalry between the US and Russia, after the events in the Ukraine. The Yanks cannot see Kyproulla playing the important role they have assigned to her in the energy field, if we carry on acting like a Russian satellite, slavishly obeying Vladimir Putin’s diktats as was the case during the Tof’s reign of incompetence.

What Biden was diplomatically telling us was that we would have to choose camp. This obviously did not register with our foreign minister Ioannis Kasoulides, who naively said on Friday, relations with Russia had not been harmed in any way by the enhanced Cyprus US relations.

“Russia respects Cyprus’ right to exercise its foreign policy within the EU, where we belong,” declared Kasoulides. It respects this right so much, that as soon as Biden’s visit was announced it informed the Cyprus government that its deputy foreign minister would be arriving on the island and would like a meeting with the president.

Moscow, in contrast to our slow-witted diplomats, has understood what the Yanks are trying to do and will try to stop them. It has plenty of leverage thanks to the Russian businesses operating in Kyproulla and if we refuse to play ball it could put Kyproulla on the tax black-list, which our auditors, lawyers and politicians have always dreaded.