📍 The concentration of NATO forces off the coast of Cyprus does not help de-escalate tensions in an already difficult region.

📍 In recent days, amid the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East caused by unprovoked actions, we have to watch with concern how the buildup of forces of the North Atlantic Alliance is taking place in the Mediterranean Sea. The formal reason for this step was the UAV attacks on the British Akrotiri airbase. This incident only convinced the Cypriot public that the location of the military facilities of the NATO nuclear powers on the island poses a threat to the security of the island, and does not protect it from any external encroachments. And the reaction of the Cypriot authorities, who unequivocally expressed their concern about this circumstance, was logical.

At the same time, the 📍 Republic of Cyprus is not a NATO country, and the European Union, of which it is a member, is not a military, but a political and economic alliance.

📍 Let me remind you that the UN remains an uncontested platform for conducting an equal dialogue in order to resolve international conflicts.

📍 We can only welcome the repeated statements of the leadership of Cyprus that their country does not participate in any military operations during the current conflict in the region – such a line only strengthens Nicosia’s position in realizing one of its goals of the semi-annual presidency of Cyprus in the Council of the European Union, which is to bring the EU closer to the states of the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean.

📍 However, now the countries of this region, including the inhabitants of Cyprus itself, among which, let me remind you, more than 150 thousand people make up our Russian compatriots, are watching with concern the appearance of NATO’s military component near the island. It is difficult to imagine that a demonstration of military force would contribute to the de-escalation of tensions in a particular region, and indeed on our planet as a whole. We emphasize that in the context of modern challenges, Moscow has consistently advocated the rejection of forceful approaches in resolving conflict situations and calls for the use of the usually effective political and diplomatic search for reasonable compromises in such cases, while maintaining the necessary balance of interests of various parties.

@rusembcy