Leader's meeting
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, today, at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, met Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides. They first met privately and later held an expanded meeting.
Prime Minister Netanyahu:
"We built together an Eastern Mediterranean alliance of democracies – Israel, Cyprus, Greece. We put our American friends in the loop as well.
It's a very stable and very promising alliance. We should continue to build it: economically, in terms of our intelligence services, defense and political partnership, also in international forums. We welcome this, and we should continue."
President Christodoulides:
"I'm here two months after I assume my duties. And I'm here despite the terrorist attacks that we fully condemn, because I want to send a strong and clear message about the strategic nature of our relationship. We worked together in the past. I'm here to see how we can enhance even more our excellent bilateral relations, but also – and that is something that I always enjoy discussing with you, dear Benjamin – the regional developments and how we can work together, two democracies in the Eastern Mediterranean, in the Middle East; how we can work together in order to get the stable future."
President Christodoulides was accompanied by the Cypriot ministers of Foreign affairs and Energy, Commerce and Industry. Also participating in the meeting were the Director of the National Security Council, the Prime Minister's Chief-of-Staff, the Prime Minister's Military Secretary, the Prime Minister's Diplomatic Adviser and the ambassadors of both countries.