Greece ratifies landmark intra-NATO defence pact with France - ALJAZEERA

7 Oct 2021

John Psaropoulos

Athens, Greece – Greece on Thursday ratified a mutual defence pact with France, the first between two NATO members.

The two countries are already bound to help each other from an attack originating outside the alliance. But the Strategic Partnership on Defence and Security for the first time joins two NATO members to support one another from an attack originating inside the alliance.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis hailed the agreement as the cornerstone of an independent European defence policy.

“The defence of European interests in the Mediterranean now acquires new substance,” Mitsotakis told parliament. “If attacked, our country will have at its side the most powerful military on the continent, the sole European nuclear power.”

Article 2 of the Partnership states that the pair will assist each other “with all the means at their disposal, in the event that armed force is needed, if they both ascertain that an attack is taking place against the territory of either.”

Cyprus, Greece decry Turkey-Libya maritime border deal - WASHINGTON POST / ASSOCIATED PRESS

November 29, 2019 at 12:00 p.m. GMT+2Menelaos Hadjicostis | AP 

NICOSIA, Cyprus — Cyprus and Greece have strongly criticized an agreement between Turkey and Libya’s U.N.-backed government to delineate the maritime boundaries between the two countries, describing it as a serious breach of international law that disregards the lawful rights of other eastern Mediterranean countries.

The Cypriot Foreign Ministry said Friday a Memorandum of Understanding the two countries signed has no legal validity and can’t undermine the rights of Cyprus or other coastal states.

It said Turkey’s “distortion” of international law doesn’t afford it any legal rights and demonstrates that Ankara is alone in its views.

‘We will no longer accept Turkey’s aggression’ - CYPRUS MAIL

APRIL 14, 2019

KATY TURNER

The US senator that introduced a bill in the Senate that covers concerns of Cyprus has said “We made it clear that we will no longer accept Turkey’s aggression in the Eastern Mediterranean region”.

Speaking to Phileleftheros on Sunday, Democratic senator Robert Menendez, of New Jersey, who heads the Democratic Group in the powerful International Relations Committee, underlined his interest and support for Cyprus.

He also stressed that the Americans “have to do more – we need to increase the support that will allow Greece to fulfill its commitments under NATO” and to lift the arms embargo against the Republic of Cyprus.

In 1987 the US placed restrictions on the transfer of arms and defensive material to Cyprus in an attempt to encourage reunification efforts and to avoid an arms race on the island.

Menendez and Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio submitted the bill aimed at lifting the embargo on the sale of arms to Cyprus, US security relations with Cyprus and Greece, and enhancing energy security in the region this week.

Things Are About to Change: Oil and Gas Have Been Found in the Eastern Mediterranean - THE NATIONAL INTEREST

March 10, 2019

Tony Chavez

Large quantities of oil and natural gas have been discovered in the East Med and the race to extract them has begun. These hydrocarbon finds hold the potential to build regional stability and to bolster the economies of important US allies and partners, all of which is in the interest of the United States. But these discoveries could just as easily stoke further instability and conflict if nations default to historic resentments and if regional powers jockey to monopolize on or block access to this strategic treasure.

Extending from Israel and Egypt in the East and South to Turkey, Greece and Italy in the North and West, the Eastern Mediterranean has long been an economically dynamic and politically important region for the United States and its NATO allies. It is about to become even more important.

Large quantities of oil and natural gas have been discovered in the East Med and the race to extract them has begun. These hydrocarbon finds hold the potential to build regional stability and to bolster the economies of important U.S. allies and partners, all of which is in the interest of the United States. But these discoveries could just as easily stoke further instability and conflict if nations default to historic resentments and if regional powers jockey to monopolize on or block access to this strategic treasure.

Wess Mitchell sends clear message to Turkey over Cyprus - KATHIMERINI

21.12.2018 : 16:00

VASSILIS NEDOS

US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell sent a clear message to Ankara not to obstruct drilling for hydrocarbons that is under way in Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), while hailing Greece as a “fantastic ally” to the United States in the region, in an exclusive interview with Kathimerini’s Sunday edition.

Mitchell said Turkey's view on Cyprus's EEZ is “a minority of one versus the rest of the world,” as international law stipulates that the island nation can use its resources in an equitable way.

Speaking to Kathimerini a day after the inaugural session of the US-Greece Strategic Dialogue in Washington, he said the US regards Greece, Cyprus and Israel as natural allies in the Eastern Mediterranean and described Greece as a “one of the most military capable allies.”

As for the contentious Prespes name deal between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Mitchell said Washington supports the accord, noting that its enforcement could increase Greece’s economically dominant role in the Balkans.

US official sends clear message to Turkey over Cyprus drilling - KATHIMERINI

16.12.2018 : 14:21

VASSILIS NEDOS

In an exclusive interview with Kathimerini’s Sunday edition, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Wess Mitchell has sent a clear message to Ankara not to obstruct drilling for hydrocarbons that is under way in Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), while hailing Greece as a “fantastic ally” to the United States in the region.

Speaking in Washington on Friday, a day after the US-Greece Strategic Dialogue, President Donald Trump’s key official on Greek-Turkish affairs and the Eastern Mediterranean said the US regards Greece, as well as Cyprus and Israel, as important allies in the region.

“Greece, Cyprus and Israel are very important countries for the US because they are stable, democratic, western allies in a region where you don’t find a lot of stable, democratic partners,” Mitchell said, adding that it was a “natural step” for the US to deepen its cooperation with all three countries.

He cited energy security and diversification as key goals, as well as keeping a check on “Iranian efforts to open a window for the Mediterranean through Syria.”

He also underlined that Cyprus has the right to develop its resources. “Our line has been consistent. Cyprus is a sovereign country and just like any other sovereign country it has resources and can develop those resources,” Mitchell said.

New Alliance Emerges in Eastern Mediterranean to Reshape Regional Security Landscape - STRATEGIC CULTURE FOUNDATION

07.SEPT.2018

PETER KORZUN

The military-political landscape in Europe and the Mediterranean is changing. NATO is not as unified as it once was, and Turkey’s membership has become more of a formality than a real thing. A pro-US group consisting of Great Britain, Poland, and the Baltic States has emerged as part of a North Atlantic Alliance that is divided by differences and the open rift over the 2% financial contribution, a decree that is largely ignored, along with the other divisions that are weakening the bloc. Other groups are arising that also have common security interests. A new pact, an Arab NATO allied with the United States, will soon materialize in the Middle East. Changes are coming, but they are hard to predict as everything is currently in a state of flux.

“The United States is interested in increasing its use of military bases and ports in Greece,” said General Joseph Dunford, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), on Sept. 4 during his visit to Athens. “If you look at geography, and you look at current operations in Libya, and you look at current operations in Syria, you look at potential other operations in the eastern Mediterranean, the geography of Greece and the opportunities here are pretty significant,” he added. According to the Military Times, “[N]o specific bases have been identified, but that Supreme Allied Commander Europe Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti is evaluating several options for increased US flight training, port calls to do forward-based ship repairs and additional multilateral exercises.” US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross came to Greece right after the CJCS’s visit to take part in the annual Thessaloniki International Trade Fair.

Greece and the Eastern Mediterranean Alliance - BESA CENTER

July 17, 2018John M. Nomikos
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 897, July 17, 2018

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Eastern Mediterranean Alliance (Israel, Greece, and Cyprus) is emerging at a time of increasing global instability. All three states are firm democracies that promote peace, security, and environmental stability in the region. The tripartite alliance is strategically the most significant anchor of Greek security and economic progress.

Concrete steps over the past three years have set the foundations of an Eastern Mediterranean Alliance (EMA) comprising Israel, Greece, and Cyprus. The convergence of the three nations is the natural outcome of close democratic similarities and a joint desire for stability and progress in a region tormented by perennial Middle East strife, radical Islamism, and the morphing of Turkey into a fundamentalist Islamic autocracy.

The EMA is emerging at a time of increasing global instability. American retrenchment from traditional postwar strategic arrangements, the resurgence of Russia, a troubled EU, the illegal migration crisis, China’s rise as a global power, and much else leave little room for complacency.

Italy joins France in warning Ankara about Cyprus gas drilling - EURACTIV.com

Jul 31, 2017

Sarantis Michalopoulos

Italian Minister of Defence Roberta Pinotti is paying a “symbolic” visit today (31 July) to Cyprus in light of oil and gas drilling that a consortium of France’s Total and Italy’s Eni is now carrying out in the region.

Cyprus started offshore drilling for gas in its economic zone triggering the strong reaction of Turkey, which warned it would take counter-measures.

Turkey claims that Cyprus’s internationally recognised government has no jurisdiction to explore for hydrocarbons [See background].

As Cyprus prepares to start offshore drilling for gas in its economic zone, Turkey announced it was readying “countermeasures” and Greece replied it was “ready to defend its sovereign rights”, in a clear sign of growing tensions between the two NATO members.

The new geopolitics and Greek perspective in the Eastern Mediterranean - MODERN DIPLOMACY

JUL 03, 2017
GEORGE X. PROTOPAPAS 

The Eastern Mediterranean has become the epicenter of maritime and geopolitical developments as great powers, regional actors antagonise for influence and access to energy resources. Greece a traditional maritime nation could play a constructive role on the stabilisation of the region.

Since 2012 US has decided to intensify its role in Asia – Pacific, neglecting, in a sense, the frozen issues in the Eastern Mediterranean (East Med). Accordingly, the US reduced the Six Fleet’s naval presence, which has currently a single command ship in Italy and four Aegis destroyers. Naturally, the reason for the Pacific shift has been the emergence of China that invests huge resources at sea. What is important in our East Med context, is that the frozen and unfinished business in the East Med have costed dearly and the bill has arrived sooner than expected. Previously inactive actors (Iran, Russia) and Turkey have now become active. Each one of them are squeezing themselves in to get a piece of the pie; a pie that has been created and (peculiarly) left unattended by its maker: the US. Paradoxically, none of these actors has ever been genuine maritime nation or maritime power. The concepts of maritime nation and power integrate the cultural element (history and tradition), geography, the commercial activities (commercial fleet) and naval power.

Security of Leviathan Gas field on NATO’s southern flank: an issue in Middle Eastern geopolitics - FOREIGN POLICY NEWS

February 20, 2017

Mehmet Bildik

NATO has been an institution that has expanded its sphere of influence exclusively toward east which NATO’s southern flank poses a complex threat that requires multi-dimensional strategies for territorial defense, cooperative security and crisis management. For the last 25 years of NATO’s history, the Alliance has constantly committed itself to provide security for Middle East and Mediterranean Energy fields.

Regarding counter terrorism and stabilization in the energy fields, the Warsaw Summit of 2016 has underlined importance of the Middle East. To this end, NATO’s Incirlik Airbase is crucial point for Middle East energy security and providing military and strategic capability for Turkey , United States and NATO’s Mediterranean partner Israel.

Is Russia really meddling with Cyprus? - IN CYPRUS / CYPRUS WEEKLY

Limassol, Feb. 28, 2014: Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades (C)
gets a tour of the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov 

February 11, 2017
Fiona Mullen

In the past few weeks there have been three articles in well-respected media outlets suggesting that Russia is trying to prevent a solution to the Cyprus problem. The first was published by Politico on January 12, the second by Bloomberg on January 16 and the third by the New York Times on February 5.

The general argument is that Russia is actively undermining efforts to resolve the Cyprus problem, which they tie to its energy and security interests, and that Cypriots are worried about this. Setting aside the uncanny timing of the articles, these assumptions are rather tenuous for a number of reasons.


The energy angle

First, let’s take the idea that Russia fears competition from Eastern Mediterranean gas. Russia has 1,140 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of proven natural gas reserves—the second largest in the world after Iran—according to the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy. Eastern Mediterranean gas finds in the past few years in Israel, Egypt and Cyprus (not all of which are proven) amount to around 70 tcf.

Can the American-Israeli Alliance Go to Sea? - FAMILY SECURITY MATTERS

November 20, 2016
ANDREW E. HARROD

"In a world of important and rapidly transforming regions, none is more strategically significant and wildly volatile than the Eastern Mediterranean."

During a recent Hudson Institute panel, former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith echoed a report that has been co-written by the Hudson Institute and the University of Haifa and which calls for the United States and Israel to collaborate in a mutually beneficial Mediterranean naval buildup amidst increasing global naval threats.

According to Hudson Institute naval expert Seth Cropsey, the United States Navy's Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean once had two aircraft carriers and a large contingent of marines permanently assigned to it. This is in dramatic contrast to the report references, which pointed out that following post-Cold War cuts, the "Sixth Fleet's permanent naval presence is now a single command ship in Italy and four Aegis destroyers equipped for ballistic missile defense, all based in Rota, Spain, just outside the Mediterranean." Retired United States Navy Admiral Gary Roughead said that Americans "have essentially ceded the Eastern Mediterranean, at least from a maritime perspective."

Turkey will be an energy hub, Putin says - UPI

European partners view Turkey as a bridge to gas reserves in Azerbaijan.

By Daniel J. Graeber | Oct. 11, 2016 at 6:03 AM

ISTANBUL, Turkey, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Turkey will become a major energy hub for the European market with assistance from the Russian government, President Vladimir Putin said.

Putin met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a special session of the 23rd World Energy Congress. Alongside geopolitical issues related to the civil war in Syria, where both sides have varying allegiances, the two leaders discussed new life for the Turkish Stream pipeline, a revision to a much larger project meant to carry Russian natural gas to Europe.

Turkey's geographic position makes it desirable as a bridge to transport energy resources from Central Asian suppliers to the European market.

Russia, Turkey sign gas pipeline deal, talk Syria - DW

10.10.2016, Chase Winter

Turkey and Russia have signed a deal to build a major gas pipeline under the Black Sea. A gradual rapproachment since a falling out last year shows the two can pursue a pragmatic relationship.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday took steps to reconcile differences following a severe deterioration of relations between the two countries earlier this year.

Putin arrived in Istanbul for the World Energy Congress, his first visit to the country since Turkey downed a Russian jet along the Syrian border last November, triggering a crisis. Turkey apologized for the jet incident in June, leading to a gradual improvement in relations and Moscow clawing back damaging sanctions on the Turkish economy.

The Markets for Israel’s Offshore Gas Dry up - DEBKA FILE

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report October 5, 2016, 7:15 AM (IDT)

While keeping this a close secret, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been forced to give up his grand plan to pipe gas from Israel’s offshore fields to Turkey for sale in European markets after France and Germany intimated that dealings with Ankara were unacceptable.

Plans to expand the Leviathan gas well have also been put on ice.

Although the search goes on for alternative buyers, the main export markets in Europe for Israel gas, barring the smaller markets of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, have suddenly dried up.

This misfortune for the Israeli economy and its causes are revealed here byDEBKAfile,

1. The key lies in Europe’s drastic change of heart towards Turkey during the years since Israel embarked on its offshore gas project. The Europeans today refuse to have any truck with Turkey and its President Tayyip Erdogan - or depend on him for their energy - in the light of his behavior since crushing the military coup against him in July. The counts against him range widely: from a massive domestic crackdown; the continued rampant influx of Muslim refugees through Turkey into central and Western Europe; his persecution of the Kurdish minority at home and in Syria; his détente with Moscow and, finally Turkey’s alienation from NATO. France and Germany have let Israel know that they would not buy Israel gas if it was piped through Turkey.

NATO allies welcome Libyan progress - UPI

File photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | Licensed Photo

Five members of the alliance have expressed recent concern about the security of Libya's oil wealth.

By Daniel J. Graeber | Aug. 18, 2016 at 6:50 AM

TRIPOLI, Libya, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Members of the NATO alliance said they welcomed Libyan investment board actions as a step toward ensuring authority over the nation's oil wealth.

The governments of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States issued a joint statement welcoming the formation of an interim five-member steering committee for the Libyan Investment Authority.

Vortex of turmoil, vacuum of power - WASHINGTON TIMES

The stabilization of the Mediterranean Sea is more critical than ever

By John Sitilides - - Sunday, June 5, 2016

ANALYSIS/OPINION:
At the core of NATO’s southeastern flank and the nexus of the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe, the eastern Mediterranean region a half decade ago was relatively serene. Egypt, Libya and Syria were ruled by enduring dictators. Turkey’s falling out with Israel had been triggered by the notorious Mavi Marmara episode to crack the Gaza embargo. The economic depression in Greece had begun, but its severity was not yet apparent. Cyprus was governed by a Communist, but with little regional impact.

An Israeli Gas Pipeline to Turkey? Bad Idea | National Review

December 20, 2015
DANIEL PIPES

News that the Turkish and Israeli governments are about to renew full diplomatic relations after years of tensions causes me to smile cynically — and to worry again about Israeli gullibility. 

The two states enjoyed close relations in the 1990s, when a common world outlook led to a strong military bond, growing trade, and exchanges of people and culture. Writing in 1997, I characterized this bilateral as having “the potential to alter the strategic map of the Middle East, to reshape American alliances there, and to reduce Israel’s regional isolation.” 

The strategic plane: Russia in the Mideast energy cauldron | Daily News Egypt

A journalist friend had told me a while ago, without naming who or when, that Russia was ready for a major strategic entrance into the region through its air campaign in Syria, compensating for all those years of being muscled out of the region with the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism.

Emad El-Din Aysha, December 20, 2015

He also told me there was a strong set of economic motives involved in this, since the Russians had first tried to re-enter the region through the Israeli natural gas finds, offering to provide the offshore platforms with a de facto security umbrella from pesky terrorist missile attacks. But the Israelis would not budge – hence the Syrian campaign and Syria’s own not insignificant oil and natural gas resources entering firmly into the Russian orbit. What happened with the downed Russian fighter-jet was to be expected, given that Turkey woke up one day and found that their neighbour to the south had just become a giant Russian military base, placing the country in a pincer movement with the Russians to the north and south.

Syria has always been Russia’s bridgehead into the Middle East and Mediterranean, especially ever since Stalin lost Yugoslavia to the Non-Aligned Movement (and NATO). That is why the Soviets did not back Syria’s unity with Egypt, threatened late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser over keeping Syria in the union by force, and were not even very keen on Syria uniting with Iraq. They were also keener on punishing the Israelis in the wake of the 1967 War over Syria than they ever were with Egypt. Abdel Nasser was too independent to control and a Syria united with a regional power like Egypt, or Iraq, could lose them a compliant ally. So there are parallels the between what’s happening now and what took place during the height of the Cold War.

The same holds true, in my humble opinion, of the ill-fated Russian passenger plane crash in Egypt on 31 October. It has been said that the bomb used – if indeed it was a bomb – was an altitude-sensitive device, which recalls Lockerbie. It could be, and this is just a supposition, that Russia is being punished for its regional ambitions, especially as those ambitions do not seem to be directed at “Islamic State” (IS), but rather only at the Syrian opposition, Islamists and non-Islamists alike.

Lockerbie was certainly utilised to go after Gaddafi, another Soviet ally in the Mediterranean, and that tragic event was used to embargo his country into long-term Western submission. Look how France has been drawn into Syria with the Paris attacks. And Russia and France are both allies of Egypt. Our tourist industry has been hit before by terror attacks, and Russian (and Ukrainian) tourists have always been the more loyal to the country, staying here in droves no matter how unstable things get, unlike the Western variety.

Iran was “punished” itself during the Iran-Iraq war, when the Americans accidentally shot down a civilian plane too, so these tactics are all too familiar even to the untrained eye. It is also disturbing that a technology from the 1980s (altitude-sensitive triggers) is making a comeback, which would indicate that the people responsible are old-timers themselves, not part of the cyber-terrorism generation at all.

Even if IS’s proclamations of guilt are not a propaganda ploy, that does not mean there are not prying hands operating behind the scenes. Look what Nafeez Ahmed has uncovered over the culpability of NATO members in harbouring Islamists of all walks operating in Syria. Turkey, it seems, has been selectively bombing Syria itself, while Iraqi oil is smuggled through the country. This does not mean the central government has anything to do with it but, if history is a guide, during the long drawn out war with the PKK drugs trafficking took place on both sides to fund or profiteer from the conflict.

Ahmed also surmises that oil and gas are a big part of the equation given that Syria is a planned outlet for Iranian oil and gas to the, you guessed, Mediterranean. We can add here IS’s role in further depressing the global price of oil, literally selling individual barrels at $30 or less. What is seldom understood about Iraq is that the country never supported the Arab oil embargo during the 1973 October War. Iraq has always been more concerned with expanding its market share than buoying up profits from a rising price of oil. A higher price would actually lose it customers to its cheaper competitors.

To quote the dearly departed Saddam Hussein: “There are attempts by imperialist and Zionist quarters in the world to distort the Arab attitude concerning oil. They constantly try to connect inflation to price increases, forgetting or ignoring the role of industrialised countries, monopolies and stock-exchange bargains in the question of inflation. These are the basic factors in inflation where oil forms a minor part. As a part of this plan, these attempts try to isolate the Arabs from the Third World countries by suggesting that the economic difficulties of those countries are basically caused by oil price increase.” (Quoted in Saddam Hussein, Iraqi Policies in Perspective: Text of President Saddam Hussein’s Press Conference, 20 July, 1980, Baghdad, 1981).

How prophetic, given the surge in oil prices that extended from 2003, when Iraq was invaded, to 2014, when Saudi Arabia all of a sudden decided it was time to over-produce. Speculation in the commodities markets was to blame at the time, and inflation is going up everywhere, even with low fuel prices. Remember that oil prices collapsed in the 1990s, even though Iraq was completely offline thanks to the sanctions regime. IS activity is also scaring off American oil companies operating in the post-invasion regime.

If I did not know better I would suspect that the Americans wanted to eliminate IS for the same reason they got rid of Saddam – to ensure that Iraqis could not push prices down whenever they felt like it. But, again, these are just (educated guesses).

Irrespective of whoever or whatever was responsible the Russian passenger plane, it will not keep the Russians out of the region. It will probably have the opposite effect. Russia is not as landlocked as it was during the Cold War, and the US is not as all-powerful as it once was either. The Arabs have woken up, more or less, on the mass scale and some Arab capitals are prying themselves loose both of US and Russian control. Meanwhile, Putin is on the warpath, and he will keep at it until he finds out who really did it, and there will be hell to pay, and we are likely to benefit in the end.

Emad El-Din Aysha received his PhD in International Studies from the University of Sheffield in the UK and taught, from 2001, at the American University in Cairo. From 2003 he has worked in English-language journalism in Egypt, first at The Egyptian Gazette and now as a staff writer with Egypt Oil and Gas.

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