Cyprus News Agency
January 17, 2014
Cyprus pushes to join NATO Partnership for Peace Programme
[When Cyprus joins NATO's Partnership for Peace program, one employed to graduate twelve Eastern European countries to full NATO membership in the decade from 1999-2009, every European state except for the micro/mini-states of Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monoco, San Marino and Vatican City will be full NATO members or members of one of more (Partnership for Peace, Individual Partnership Action Plan, Membership Action Plan, Annual National Programme) Alliance partnership program. Russia, formerly a member of the Partnership for Peace, is now linked with the U.S.-controlled military bloc through the NATO-Russia Council.]
President Anastasiades has pledged the government’s determination to initiate procedures to join NATO’s Partnership for Peace Programme.
The President made the statement during a speech titled “The true story about the geopolitical role of Cyprus: David or Goliath?” at the London School of Economics, as part of his official visit to the UK.
Nicos Anastasiades said that “the geopolitical role of Cyprus is a dynamic process, the evolution of which depends not only on its geographic location, but mainly on the volatility of the environment in which it operates.”
He referred to “the conscious reorientation of the foreign policy of Cyprus, based on a comprehensive and extrovert approach” as one of the main goals of his government.
This reorientation, he elaborated, aims at reaching a solution to the Cyprus problem, safeguarding the exploitation of the island’s natural wealth enhancing the country’s participation in all EU pillars and policies, actively contributing to building and promoting peace and security in the immediate region of Eastern Mediterranean while at the same time deepening Cyprus’s bilateral relations with neighbouring countries of the region and upgrading the bilateral relations with the United States, UK and Israel, without negatively affecting the already deep-rooted relations with other countries such as Russia, China and those of the Arab world.
“A most decisive guiding principle of this policy, which in essence marks a strategic shift in our foreign policy dogma, is our decision to initiate procedures to join NATO’s Partnership for Peace Programme; the PfP. Bear in mind that we are the only EU member state which is not in the PfP. I consider this to be an anomaly which finally has to be rectified,” said the President.
He stressed that Cyprus has proven that it can assume the role of being an interconnecting bridge between Europe, North Africa, the Near and Middle East, as well as a country that gives true credence to being a safe haven.
He cited as evidence his government’s decision to provide refuge and humanitarian assistance from a crisis spillover, as well as a support base for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the UN joint mission.
Turning his attention to issues concerning energy, he noted that “the very promising potential of hydrocarbon exploration in the Levantine basin requires that all countries in the region work closely together, bilaterally and regionally,” building the foundations for regional peace.
…
Source