The increasing level of cooperation between Cyprus and the United States has several countries in doubt, Russia being one of them. The country’s capital recently warned Nicosia, saying that the increasing military cooperation between the island nation and the US to keep away from Russian influence might just backfire and end up with destabilizing consequences for itself.
According to a speech by Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, that the American military buildup might just force Moscow to take response measures. She added that her comments were based on special information that DC is planning to make a dominating military presence on the island nation,
Said comment came only two days before Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s a visit to Moscow, and 2 weeks before the United States-backed Greece-Israel-Cyprus trilateral summit.
Increasing military relations between Cyprus and the US have been going on for a while no, with Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades’ declared expectation to have the US express its interest in taking part in said trilateral summit.
Ms. Zakharova also said that the US wants all but to stay hidden – they want to counter the growing Russian influence under the guise of cooperation – in response to the Russian military’s recent successful operations in Syria.
In response to the warning, Nicos Christodoulides, Cyprus Foreign Minister contacted Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister to keep tensions at bay. Prodromos Prodromou, spokesman for the Cypriot government even went on to claim that “militarizing Cyprus” has never been – and will continue to not be their intention.