There is no doubt that under the Nikos Christodoulides presidency, Cyprus’ relations with the United States have drastically improved. The improvement in all fields has been so spectacular that the Christodoulides government is now being accused by the perennial West-bashers of complete subservience to Washington, which is unfair. When the Cyprus government was at the beck and call of Moscow, none of these critics saw anything wrong, defending the subservience by repeating the absurd myth that Russia took a ‘principled stand’ on the Cyprus problem. 

After the invasion of Ukraine, the Cyprus government was forced to side with the West and grudgingly end the close ties with Russia. It had no choice. Christodoulides’ election opened a new chapter in relations as he pursued closer ties with the US on a range of issues. He also sought American help to clamp down on money-laundering and sanction violations, which were constantly being used by Washington against Cyprus. With this out of the way, the grandly entitled ‘strategic dialogue’ commenced, in September 2024 the United States-Cyprus Roadmap for Bilateral Defence Cooperation was signed, establishing the framework for strengthening security and defence ties. A month later, Christodoulides visited President Joe Biden in the White House.

While these agreements were important, it was the steadfast way in which Cyprus cooperated with Israel and the US during the ongoing war in Gaza that really boosted relations with Washington, which came to see Cyprus as reliable ally in the region. Where this will lead relations, and how the US would want to use Cyprus for its future plans in the region, nobody can say with any certainty. And the meeting in Washington between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos shed no light on this, although the government spokesman in Nicosia uttered the usual platitudes and interpretation of the meeting, without saying anything

“The overall imprint of the meeting confirms that Cyprus has entered a new phase of international presence and political weight,” said Konstantinos Letymbiotis, adding that the Republic was “a useful European actor able to contribute to transatlantic cooperation, stability in the eastern Mediterranean….” The brief State Department press release offered perspective explaining that the meeting was about “advancing transatlantic cooperation during the Cyprus Republic’s 2026 EU Council Presidency”. It also said that Rubio “thanked Cyprus for its support in promoting regional security and providing humanitarian aid to Gaza”.

In short, the meeting in Washington understandably was about the EU presidency which Cyprus will hold from January and had nothing to do with the new phase of international presence that, according to the Letymbiotis, Cyprus has entered. Having good relations with United States should be an end in itself, for now. It would be good to know where these would lead though.