In a bid to improve the level of marine security and improve the military relations between Italy and Cyprus, the island nation’s EMERGENCY services have started a new joint exercising program along with crew from the Italian Navy.
Supervised by the Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Larnaca, the exercise was conducted near the Cyprus coast and had helicopters simulating a situation of emergency.
The Ministry of Defense in Nicosia says that the joint exercise was held as a part of the ongoing actions to promote cooperation development, and aims to improve upon response of Search and Rescue incidents and other emergency situations which may arise in the course of operations within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as well as the Cyprus’ Search and Rescue Region.
This exercise comes right after the all-important announcement in November which declared that the trilateral cooperation between Cyprus, Egypt and Greece and Egypt will expand a quadrilateral one after the inclusion of Italy – a move that has been initiated by President Anastasiades.
Cyprus has indeed been keen on furthering its foreign relations. Last month the island country had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (also known as a M.O.U.) with Israel, Greece, and Italy to help in the construction of EastMed, which is a gas pipeline that will run under the sea to Europe from the Eastern side of the Mediterranean Sea.
