Dendias thanks US officials for Cyprus arms embargo lift

Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias thanked US Secretary Antony Blinken and Senators Bob Menendez and Marco Rubio Monday for helping lift the embargo on arms sales to Cyprus.

I want to express Greece’s most intense satisfaction for the lifting of the arms sales embargo to the Republic of Cyprus,” Dendias said on Monday after meeting with his Cypriot colleague, Ioannis Kasoulides in New York City. “I think thanks are due to Antony Blinken, but also to Senators Menendez and Rubio,” he added, referring to the Chairman and ranking member of the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee. 

Dendias also said that the lifting of the embargo is “a reward for the Republic of Cyprus’ consistent stance.” 

Dendias is in New York to attend the 77th United Nations General Assembly. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will arrive Tuesday.

Dendias has a full schedule of meetings until Friday, at least 40, including those he will attend jointly with Mitsotakis.

“I think it’s a brilliant opportunity to deepen already existing relations, but also to explain to all our interlocutors the constructive role Greece plays, both in the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. And, of course, to advance the…Cyprus issue,” Dendias said.

Dendias and Kasoulides also met with Armenia’s Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.

“He explained to us what is happening in South Caucasus and we had the opportunity to jointly state our firm position for Armenia’s independence and territorial integrity,” Dendias said. “We are opposed to every kind of revisionism, wherever it comes from, from whichever country, especially if combined with an effort to use the energy situation as a weapon against a number of countries and to revise borders,” Dendias said, referring both to the recent intrusion by Azerbaijan into Armenia and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[AMNA]