Signatures June 8 For Agreement on Hosting French Forces in Cyprus; Tanks Upgrade on Hold (original) (raw)

NICOSIA – A Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the Republic of Cyprus and France will be signed on June 8 in Nicosia by Cyprus’s Minister of Defense, Vasilis Palmas, and his French counterpart, Catherine Vautrin, according to information obtained by the Cyprus News Agency (CNA).

According to CNA sources, the two defense ministers will sign the agreement during a bilateral meeting on Monday afternoon at the Filoxenia Conference Center, following the conclusion of the informal meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council (Defense), which is being hosted in Nicosia as part of Cyprus’s Presidency of the European Union.

The President of the Republic had announced during the official visit of French President Emmanuel Macron to Nicosia in April that the SOFA agreement concerning the hosting of French forces on Cypriot territory for humanitarian operations in the region would be signed during June.

Shift Toward Israeli Merkava Tanks

In another development concerning defense modernization, the situation regarding Greece’s Leopard 1A5 tanks does not appear to satisfy the General Staff of the Cyprus National Guard (GEEF). The tanks had been considered as a possible solution for strengthening the National Guard’s armored fleet.

According to reports, a Cypriot delegation traveled to Greece and conducted an on-site inspection of the vehicles that Greece was prepared to transfer.

Following the inspection, the same sources indicate that the tanks were found unable to meet the operational requirements of the Cyprus National Guard, even as an interim solution. Any agreement between Athens and Nicosia would have depended on the tanks being deemed operationally suitable for filling the capability gaps left by the aging fleet of 126 wheeled EE-9 Cascavel armored vehicles, which the National Guard received in 1980.

Under these circumstances, there is currently no agreement between Cyprus and Greece for the transfer of Leopard 1A5 tanks, despite reports circulating on some Greek websites.

Nevertheless, efforts by the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff to strengthen the National Guard’s armored forces continue, with the Israeli Merkava tank remaining high on the list of priorities.

However, it is believed that Israeli military operations in southern Lebanon and the extensive deployment of tanks by the Israel Defense Forces have, for the time being, frozen any potential developments on that front.