Cyprus’ cooperation with Armenia is “excellent”, Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas said on Wednesday.

Palmas was speaking after a meeting with his Armenian counterpart Suren Papikyan in the country’s capital city Yerevan, and firstly expressed Cyprus’ “gratitude” for “Armenia’s support in all regional and international organisations for a solution to the Cyprus problem based on the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions”.

He also pledged Cyprus’ support for Armenia’s efforts to establish closer ties with the European Union.

The defence ministry said Palmas and Papikyan had “reaffirmed the excellent relations between Cyprus and Armenia and the historical ties between the two peoples”, as well as the “excellent cooperation” which exists in the framework of their tripartite cooperation with Greece in the fields of defence and security.

The ministry added that the pair had discussed “international developments, the security situation in the wider Eastern Mediterranean, and the consequences of the ongoing conflict in Israel and the escalation of the situation in Lebanon.”

Additionally, it said, the pair discussed the geopolitical situation in the Caucasus region.

They then reviewed the existing bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the fields of defence and security and confirmed their common intent to deepen that cooperation, with Palmas saying after the meeting that his presence in Armenia is “tangible proof of the strong ties of friendship and cooperation” which exist between the two countries.

Delving into specifics regarding cooperation in the fields of security and defence, he said this cooperation currently entails visits by military personnel to each other’s countries, joint training exercises, and cooperation for defence procurement.

These acts, he said, have allowed for the interoperability between the two countries’ armed forces to be strengthened, while “at the same time, mutual respect and mutual understanding has developed”.

The meeting between Palmas and Papikyan comes a day after President Nikos Christodoulides and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said after the meeting that “the longstanding close ties between Cyprus and Armenia were reaffirmed”, while both sides expressed “strong support” for one another.

Pashinyan, according to the Cyprus News Agency, reaffirmed his support for a solution to the Cyprus problem and informed Christodoulides about ongoing negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan following the latter’s recapture of the Karabakh region.