Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos and United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday held a telephone conversation in which they discussed, among other things, “cooperation on security and defence”.

Kombos wrote in a social media post that the conversation centred on the two countries’ “bilateral agenda” on the subject of defence.

He added that the pair had discussed “current developments in the region” and emphasised “our shared views on preserving security and stability”.

Defence ties between Cyprus and the US have been strengthened this year, with the US having authorised Cyprus to buy military hardware directly from the US government after joining three programmes run by the country’s department of defence at the beginning of this year.

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Within this framework, President Nikos Christodoulides said last week that the defence ministry had sent a “detailed list” of the military hardware Cyprus wishes to acquire from the US, and that he hoped the US government would approve the request “soon”.

Cyprus has been incorporated into the US defence security cooperation agency’s foreign military sales (FMS) programme, its excess defence articles (EDA) programme, and will be allocated resources under the US’ ‘Title 10’ security assistance provisions.

It is the inclusion into the FMS programme which will allow the government to purchase military hardware directly from the US government, with the country previously having only been able to buy US military hardware from private companies.

Being able to circumvent private companies will allow the government to buy weapons and other hardware at cheaper prices than before, given that the US government typically acquires its apparatus in bulk, and is thus able to sell it on for cheaper prices than what private companies would offer to a military of the national guard’s size.

Christodoulides had at the end of last year suggested that the US may offer financial assistance to the Republic of Cyprus to upgrade the Andreas Papandreou airbase in Paphos.

He said this assistance may be forthcoming as the US has in the past “utilised the Andreas Papandreou base for humanitarian purposes”.

On this matter, Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas had stressed last month that the Paphos airbase and the Evangelos Florakis naval base in Mari are “of Cypriot interest and Cypriot ownership”.

He said ownership of both bases “will not be transferred out of Cypriot hands, regardless of our cooperation with the Americans and the Europeans”.

“We will continue to serve allies in terms of training, information exchange, and in broader missions, including the removal of their citizens from crisis areas,” he said.