PM off to Nicosia for now-routine summit with Cypriot, Greek leaders
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Nicosia on Tuesday and hold meetings with the leaders of Cyprus and Greece, the fourth such summit in less than three years and a sign of a flourishing strategic alliance between the three Eastern Mediterranean countries.
The focus of the talks between Netanyahu, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Cypriot Prime Minister Nicos Anastasiades is expected to be on energy-related issues, as has been the case the previous three times.
Each of those summits dealt, as this one is expected to do as well, with the feasibility of laying a pipeline from Israel to Cyprus, and from there to Greece and onward to Italy.
A memorandum of understanding regarding the pipeline was signed in December.
Netanyahu told his cabinet ministers on Sunday that the export of Israeli gas to Western Europe could “make a very significant contribution to the Israeli economy.”
European governments and Israel agreed in April 2017 to move forward with the ambitious Mediterranean pipeline project, setting a target date of 2025 for completion. The cost of the 2,000-km. pipeline is expected to reach some $6.7 billion.
Europe is keen to diversify its energy supplies, and Greece wants to promote itself as a hub for the transit of gas from the eastern Mediterranean to the continent.
Turkey, which is also interested in diversifying its energy sources, has in the past expressed an interest in Israel laying a pipeline to Turkey, one of the reasons proffered in the past for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s willingness to resume full diplomatic relations with Israel in 2016, despite his oft-expressed enmity toward the Jewish state.
While the alternative of exporting gas to Europe through Turkey would be the cheaper option, Jerusalem is reluctant to do so because of Erdogan’s hostility.
Up until the early 2000s, Greece and Cyprus were among the most critical countries toward Israel in Europe. This changed, however, in the middle of the last decade with Israel’s discovery of natural gas in the Mediterranean, and because of a sharp deterioration in Israeli-Turkish ties.
Cyprus and Greece are historic rivals of Turkey, with the Turks having occupied the northern half of Cyprus since 1974. Turkey’s action in the exclusive economic zone of Cyprus, where the country wants to develop a natural gas field, is also expected to be discussed on Tuesday.
In February, Turkish warships blocked a vessel bound for drilling activities in these waters, an action the Cypriots deemed “provocative.”
This issue was a topic of discussion in March when Cyprus’s Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides was in Israel.