Europe should use Donald Trump’s renewed interest in the Middle East and Cyprus’s ties to the region to strengthen relations with Washington, the island’s president has said. Nicos Christodoulides, whose country assumes the rotating presidency of the EU in January, said the bloc should make use of Cyprus’s role as a bridge between the EU and the Middle East. Aligning more closely with the US president on the region was a way for Europe to remain an aspiring “global power”, he said in an interview with the Financial Times.
“The [wider Middle East] region is not only important for the EU, for me the region is a point of convergence with Trump and the US,” he told the Financial Times in an interview at his office in Nicosia. “At this moment we don’t have a clear point of convergence with the US.
“Some leaders disagree on certain issues with Trump. Personally, I don’t think it’s about agreeing or disagreeing. He’s the president of the US. We need to find a way to work with him. In our region, he’s the leader . . . and we see positive development because of Trump’s leadership.”
The proximity of Cyprus to the Middle East and history of engagement with Arab and north African powers give it an outsized voice when the EU’s 27 states are divided over Israel’s war against Gaza, future engagement with Iran and the new administration in Syria. Christodoulides argued that Europe should acknowledge US moves in the region. “When the crisis between Iran and Israel [broke], it was Trump that solved the problem. Or now with Gaza. He presented a plan, not ideal, but he presented something on the table,” he said, adding that the EU should recognise that reality as it seeks common ground with Washington.
Not at Ukraine’s expense
Christodoulides denied that increasing the focus on the eastern Mediterranean would mean sidelining Ukraine. He said Ukraine would “continue to be a priority” and he would visit President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on December 4. “You need to be in a position at the same time to deal with Ukraine and the Middle East, otherwise we should not aspire to be a global power,” he said.
“We fully understand the state of Ukraine. You know, what Russia is doing in Ukraine, we have it in Cyprus,” he said.
EU presidency focus
The presidency would focus on making progress in Ukraine’s stalled bid to join the EU, he said. “I believe that the people in Ukraine are a bit tired, and it’s normal to be tired after so many years, so we need to give a positive message to the people,” he said.
Christodoulides cited the Cypriot-led Amalthea Plan to ship aid to Gaza, backed by the European Commission and developed with support from the US and United Arab Emirates, as proof that Cyprus can bridge Europe and the region. Brussels has stepped up cooperation with eastern Mediterranean countries such as Egypt and Algeria, mainly to manage migration, and has launched an initiative to identify investment projects in partner countries.
“A message that we are getting from the region [is that] we don’t need more joint statements and declarations, we need projects,” Christodoulides said.
He pointed to the planned power cable from Greece to Cyprus and then to Israel, as well as cooperation with India as part of a proposed corridor across the Middle East to Europe.