Liberman urges cooperation with Greek, Cypriot counterparts against terror

Cyprus summit includes conference of three nations’ defense industries to bolster collaboration

By ToI Staff 22 June 2018, 3:22 pm Edit

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, flanked by his Cypriot colleague Savvas Angelides, center, and Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos, reviews an honor guard in Cyprus on June 22, 2018. (Ariel Hermoni/Israeli Defense Ministry)

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman met with his Greek and Cypriot counterparts in Cyprus on Friday to discuss defense and counterterrorism coordination between the three nations.

Alongside the ministers’ summit, officials from the three respective defense ministries held a conference in Cyprus that brought together their defense industries in a bid to bolster cooperation.

“Rising extremism and the threat of terrorism are challenges shared by all Mediterranean nations, and require that friendly nations cooperate to achieve regional stability,” Liberman said at the meeting with Greece’s Panos Kammenos and Cyprus’s Savvas Angelides.

“Cyprus, Greece and Israel have close and warm relations,” Liberman added after the meeting. “These flow from our [geographic] proximity, our values, and our shared challenges.”

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman, left, Cypriot Defense Minister Savvas Angelides, center, and Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos meet in Cyprus on June 22, 2018. (Ariel Hermoni/Israeli Defense Ministry)

The summit, billed by Liberman’s office as dealing with “strategic regional issues and topical defense matters,” is the second held by the three men. Their last trilateral gathering was in November.