{"id":1155649,"date":"2026-08-18T13:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T13:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1155649\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T13:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T13:33:15","slug":"relations-with-france-at-highest-level-ever-palace-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1155649\/","title":{"rendered":"Relations with France \u2018at highest level ever\u2019, palace says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Relations between Cyprus and France are at their \u201chighest level ever\u201d<\/strong>, the presidential palace said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cA historic relationship has now been upgraded to a strategic partnership, with specific policies and tangible results. The multifaceted and multilevel cooperation between the two countries is constantly evolving, with particular emphasis on defence and security, energy, connectivity, education and culture,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

It added that \u201cat the same time, Cyprus and France share a common approach to Europe\u2019s role in the world and the need to strengthen its strategic autonomy<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longstanding friendship and cooperation between the two countries has been proven in practice, to the benefit of Cyprus and France, the European Union, and the wider region,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The strategic partnership<\/a> between Cyprus and France was signed by Presidents Nikos Christodoulides and Emmanuel Macron in December last year, with Macron at the time describing it as an \u201cimportant step\u201d and thanking Christodoulides for \u201cthe trust you place in our country\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that the agreement \u201cunderscores the strength of our bilateral relations <\/strong>and our commitment to being even more present alongside you in the eastern Mediterranean\u201d.<\/p>\n

Christodoulides, meanwhile, said the signing of the agreement \u201cmarks a highly significant chapter\u201d in relations between Cyprus and France.<\/p>\n

With the agreement, he said, \u201cwe declare our determination to elevate our bilateral cooperation to a new level<\/strong>\u201d, through \u201ca structured and results-oriented mechanism\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is, in essence, a clear political statement and a tangible expression of the strategic nature of our partnership, setting out a shared vision and concrete priorities for the years ahead,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Following this, Macron visited Cyprus alongside Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis days after the island was hit by an Iranian-made drone<\/a> in March, before also deploying the aircraft carrier the Charles de Gaulle, among other naval vessels, to the island\u2019s vicinity.<\/p>\n

He said during that visit that \u201cwhen Cyprus was attacked, all of Europe was attacked\u201d, and that \u201cthe presence of all three of us side by side today indicates the strength of these partnerships, their robustness, and that your compatriots can really believe in them\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A month later, he visited the island again and declared that \u201cFrance loves Cyprus<\/a>, and our role is to be by your side in practice during difficult tensions\u201d<\/p>\n

France\u2019s military presence on the island was bolstered in June when it signed a status of forces agreement allowing it to station troops on the island, with Christodoulides having said of that agreement that it would \u201cstrengthen humanitarian military cooperation and joint action at a regional level<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Those French forces, he said, will be present on the island \u201cfor humanitarian purposes\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Relations between Cyprus and France are at their \u201chighest level ever\u201d, the presidential palace said on Tuesday. \u201cA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1155650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5309],"tags":[45474,2993,2000,299,36],"class_list":["post-1155649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-cyprus-news","tag-defence","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-france"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117116771224196026","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1155649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1155650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1155649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1155649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1155649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}