After trilateral summit, leaders agree to defend against ‘malign influences’ in region
March 20, 2019
In a joint statement in Jerusalem on Wednesday, the leaders of Greece, Israel and Cyprus and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, agreed to further entrench cooperation between all four countries, boosting energy and security cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean.
In their statement, Tsipras, Benjamin Netanyahu, Nicos Anastasiades and Pompeo confirmed their commitment to energy and security cooperation and pledged to “defend against external malign influences” in the Eastern Mediterranean and the broader Middle East.
The statement also said that Pompeo underlined US support for the trilateral mechanism set up by Greece, Israel and Cyprus.
“They welcomed the recent natural gas finds in the Eastern Mediterranean and its potential to contribute to energy security and diversification,” the statement concluded.
“Our basic idea is very significant – to create a secure network to transfer energy resources from the region of the Eastern Mediterranean, from Israel, Cyprus and Greece, to Europe,” said Tsipras in brief remarks at the beginning of the summit referring to the planned construction of the EastMed pipeline to transfer gas from Israel and Cyprus to Greece and on to Italy.
