Cypriot Defence Minister Savvas Angelides is on an official visit to Egypt to boost military cooperation in the region as tensions bubble up over Cyprus’ East Med energy search.
Monday’s Cairo talks will cover regional security and cooperation, energy security and prospects for cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean, bilateral relations and ways to strengthen them.
Angelides, heading a Ministry of Defence delegation, will be officially welcomed at the Egyptian Ministry of Defence by his counterpart and talks with the participation of their delegations will follow.
Angelides will also visit the Unknown Soldier Memorial, where he will lay a wreath.
The ties between the two Ministries have been strengthened over the past year, with the signing of military memoranda of understanding and joint training and manoeuvres, many of which on a trilateral level with Greece.
Angelides is in Egypt at the invitation of his Egyptian counterpart, Lieutenant General Mohamed Zaki, in the framework of enhancing and upgrading the excellent relations of the two countries on a Ministry of Defence level.
The leaders of Greece and Egypt last week backed efforts by regional ally Cyprus to exploit off-shore gas deposits, despite strong objection from Turkey.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras hosted a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on the island of Crete.
The talks were the sixth meeting between the three leaders aimed at forming an energy-based alliance in the east Mediterranean.
US energy giant ExxonMobil will search for natural gas off the coast of Cyprus by the end of the year.
"We have clearly expressed our support for Cyprus in its efforts to capitalise on the sovereign rights deriving from International Law regarding (offshore deposits) and to make progress in their exploitation," said Tsipras.
But Turkey has vowed to actively oppose Cyprus' search, insisting that the plans infringe on its own continental shelf and that they ignore the rights of Turkish Cypriots to the ethnically divided island nation's natural resources.
In February, Turkey dispatched warships to block drilling by Italian energy company ENI off the Cypriot coast.
Turkey is also at odds with Egypt and Greece over boundaries in the east Mediterranean and the Aegean.
Egypt and Cyprus have also agreed to build a pipeline to supply Cairo with Cyp0riot gas that could then be re-exported to Europe.
