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PM Netanyahu, Cypriot President Anastasiades and Greek PM Tsipras Hold
Prime Minister Netanyahu, Cypriot President Anastasiades and Greek Prime
Minister Tsipras Hold Second Summit Meeting in Jerusalem
(Communicated by the Prime Minister’s Media Adviser)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras held their second summit this morning
(Thursday, 8 December 2016), in Jerusalem, after having met in Nicosia this
past January. Prime Minister Netanyahu also held separate meetings with each
of the leaders.
The second trilateral meeting reflects the close and tightening relations
between the countries.
Relations between the three countries are strategically important for
strengthening stability and establishing a regular framework for countries
with common interests. A trilateral research and development agreement on
advancing joint projects was also signed.
The leaders agreed to hold their next meeting in Thessaloniki next year.
Prime Minister Netanyahu:
“I want to welcome our dear friends, the Prime Minister of Greece and the
President of Cyprus, Alexis, Nicos, welcome back to Jerusalem and we look
forward to continuing our summits next year in Saloniki
This is a meeting of genuine friendship. There are shared values between us.
We are three democracies in the Eastern Mediterranean. We’ve come to the
conclusion quite a few years ago that we have so much to gain by cooperating
with each other and we’re doing that, point of fact, including with the new
agreement we signed today.
A few days ago we had the help of firefighters from Cyprus and from Greece.
The Greek firefighters put out fires of Haifa. It should be understood that
this was invaluable help from both of you, deeply appreciated and we
respond. We reciprocate. When you had recent fires in Cyprus we sent our
planes. This is a concrete example of how this cooperation actually saves
lives. But it can go well beyond that.
We’ve just discussed the formation of a regional emergency force,
multinational force, which will be not merely coordinated in times of
crisis, but will actually have a joint command center, will involve not only
our three countries but more countries that we’ll bring in, plan the
construction, plan the buildup of these forces for firefighting,
earthquakes, floods, search and rescue. This is I think an important idea
and I’m glad that we have an agreement to move it forward and I think it
will take our cooperation in this area to higher levels.
We are dealing also with matters of economy, with R&D, energy – that’s a
very big topic. We have gas fields, we have joint interests, we know want to
explore the development of these gas fields and the provision of the gas to
European markets. This is something that occupies our time and our
attention. I hope we can move forward on it.
We have tourists, a lot of tourists. We have more Israeli tourists going to
Greece and Cyprus than we have the other way, but of course we have
expectations for the future.
But we welcome every form of cooperation between us. I think it’s developing
in a great pace, and these summits afford us the opportunity to create more
areas of cooperation for the benefit of all our peoples.
Aside from anything else, I think there is genuine friendship, genuine
friendship, a genuine sympathy of our three peoples to each other, and it’s
in this shared spirit that I welcome you here in Jerusalem.
I think that one of the things that has changed is the appreciation of so
many in our region of the importance of our common civilization, our common
commitments to democracy, to the rights of human beings to a life of
liberty, prosperity and security. And I welcome the opportunity to advance
our common values and our common interests with you here in Jerusalem.So
welcome friends. It’s very good to see you. Thank you.”
Prime Minister Netanyahu:
“I want to welcome our dear friends, the Prime Minister of Greece and the
President of Cyprus, Alexis, Nicos, welcome back to Jerusalem and we look
forward to continuing our summits next year in Saloniki
This is a meeting of genuine friendship. There are shared values between us.
We are three democracies in the Eastern Mediterranean. We’ve come to the
conclusion quite a few years ago that we have so much to gain by cooperating
with each other and we’re doing that, point of fact, including with the new
agreement we signed today.
A few days ago we had the help of firefighters from Cyprus and from Greece.
The Greek firefighters put out fires of Haifa. It should be understood that
this was invaluable help from both of you, deeply appreciated and we
respond. We reciprocate. When you had recent fires in Cyprus we sent our
planes. This is a concrete example of how this cooperation actually saves
lives. But it can go well beyond that.
We’ve just discussed the formation of a regional emergency force,
multinational force, which will be not merely coordinated in times of
crisis, but will actually have a joint command center, will involve not only
our three countries but more countries that we’ll bring in, plan the
construction, plan the buildup of these forces for firefighting,
earthquakes, floods, search and rescue. This is I think an important idea
and I’m glad that we have an agreement to move it forward and I think it
will take our cooperation in this area to higher levels.
We are dealing also with matters of economy, with R&D, energy – that’s a
very big topic. We have gas fields, we have joint interests, we know want to
explore the development of these gas fields and the provision of the gas to
European markets. This is something that occupies our time and our
attention. I hope we can move forward on it.
We have tourists, a lot of tourists. We have more Israeli tourists going to
Greece and Cyprus than we have the other way, but of course we have
expectations for the future.
But we welcome every form of cooperation between us. I think it’s developing
in a great pace, and these summits afford us the opportunity to create more
areas of cooperation for the benefit of all our peoples.
Aside from anything else, I think there is genuine friendship, genuine
friendship, a genuine sympathy of our three peoples to each other, and it’s
in this shared spirit that I welcome you here in Jerusalem.
I think that one of the things that has changed is the appreciation of so
many in our region of the importance of our common civilization, our common
commitments to democracy, to the rights of human beings to a life of
liberty, prosperity and security. And I welcome the opportunity to advance
our common values and our common interests with you here in Jerusalem.So
welcome friends. It’s very good to see you. Thank you.”
“There is a new development here. We have agreed to move forward on a
multi-national, regional rescue and emergency services force, to be formed
by our three countries – Israel, Greece and Cyprus. However, we would like
to add other countries to the joint command center for emergencies such as
fires, earthquakes, floods and others. We want to plan the structure of the
force and share this mission among the various countries, which would
greatly help security and assuring the lives of the citizens of all
countries here in the region as well as in other countries.”
At the trilateral energy meeting between Israel, Cyprus and Greece, National
Infrastructures, Energy and Water Minister Dr. Yuval Steinitz agreed with
his counterparts that the three countries’ energy ministers would meet with
the EU Energy Commissioner in order to advance the construction of the gas
pipeline between Israel, Cyprus, Greece and Italy.
Prime Minister Netanyahu will meet this afternoon with Honduran President
Orlando Hernandez, who is visiting Israel for the second time.
Source: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=71840
