Three Eastern Mediterranean Amigos

  By Henry Srebrnik, [Sydney, N.S.] Cape Breton Post

A strategic shift has emerged over the last decade and a half in the eastern Mediterranean as Israel, Greece, and Cyprus increasingly share interests and values.

Senior government officials from the three countries convened in Nicosia, Cyprus June 19 to further cooperation. The Israel-Hellenic Forum met amid blossoming relations between the three countries over the last decade and a half in a variety of fields including tourism, medicine, cybersecurity, energy, military cooperation and intelligence sharing. The gathering also dealt with the Iranian threat and the impact of the war in Ukraine.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has called on the European Union to blacklist Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization while hailing what he called a “trilateral alliance” between the three countries.  

Iran and its proxies operate in the Mediterranean Sea. The EU, to which Greece and Cyprus both belong, has been reluctant to make a broad listing of the powerful military Iranian structure out of fear of provoking an escalation with Tehran. 

In recent years, the three countries have ramped up cooperation on economic efforts in the Mediterranean Sea, including on electricity and gas. They also share a fear of Turkey, which has been trying to expand its presence in the eastern Mediterranean.

The eastern Mediterranean can provide a key energy corridor to Europe through a planned electricity cable connecting the power grids of Cyprus, Greece and Israel and a natural gas pipeline.

“Unlocking the full potential of our region will be a game changer,” Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos has stated. “We strive to promote a reliable and sustainable energy corridor from the Eastern Mediterranean basin to Europe.”

Kombos said a 2,000-megawatt undersea electricity cable known as the EurAsia Interconnector and a proposed 1,900-kilometre EastMed gas pipeline “remain two significant strategic options on our energy agenda.”

The Cypriot foreign minister underscored that the projects have gained added weight and urgency in light of the war in Ukraine that has compelled Europe to scramble for alternative sources of energy, and the “need for energy diversification and increased interconnectivity.” But work hasn’t started on either yet.  

In fact, rather than the 2,000 kilometre EastMed pipeline to continental Europe, the Cypriot government which came to power in March is now proposing a much shorter one, linking Cyprus to fields off Israel. Once in Cyprus, the gas could be converted to liquified natural gas and shipped to Europe.

Energy Minister George Papanastasiou said that the EastMed pipeline, which has been under discussion between Israel, Cyprus and Greece for about a decade, had not been dropped but it faced cost intensive challenges.

Other than being shorter and faster to build, a 300-kilometre link to fields off Israel will provide Cyprus with access to cheap gas and give Israel another export outlet in addition to Egypt.

Defence relations also keep strengthening. Air and naval forces from Israel, Greece, Cyprus, France, Italy, and the United States also held their annual two-week “Noble Dina 2023” joint military exercises in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in March, with an emphasis on anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare and search and rescue operations.

As well, Cyprus and Israel signed a bilateral defence cooperation program between the two armies, as well as a corresponding tripartite program for 2023 with the Greek defence forces.

Since returning as head of the government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has worked to enhance cooperation with Cyprus. In February he discussed the strategic significance of the Cyprus-Israel relationship during a telephone conversation with the newly-elected Cypriot President, Nikos Christodoulides.

“We built together an Eastern Mediterranean alliance of democracies --- Israel, Cyprus, and Greece. We put our American friends in the loop as well,” Netanyahu said. “It's a very stable and very promising alliance,” he added. “We should continue to build it: economically, in terms of our intelligence services, defence and political partnership, also in international forums.”

President Christodoulides responded that he came to Israel despite ongoing terrorist attacks that his government “fully condemns,” because he wanted to send a clear message about the strategic nature of the relationship between the two.