The cabinet on Thursday green-lit the armaments which Cyprus intends to procure via the Security Action for Europe (Safe) programme.

The list of armaments was prepared by the defence ministry.

Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas declined to be drawn on the specifics of the armaments, “for obvious reasons”.

But he stressed that the armaments to be procured via Safe would be “defensive” in nature.

“Under no circumstances do the armaments programmes on the list concern weapons systems with an offensive posture,” the minister told media.

“They are purely for defensive purposes, always keeping in mind – and let us never forget it – that Cyprus is an occupied country for the last 51 years…”

Next on November 30 the government will formally deliver the list to the European Commission.

“Once the procedure gets final approval, we will be in a position to tap into funds – the amount allocated to us being €1.2 billion,” Palmas explained.

After that, the defence ministry will liaise with the finance ministry to include these funds into the annual state budget each year.

Asked whether Cyprus would order weapons systems chiefly from France and Germany, under the Safe mechanism, Palmas said:

“Not only France and Germany, there are other countries with which we can jointly produce armaments.”

The Safe programme foresees that EU member-states and allies will join forces to carry out “common procurements” for military hardware.

All EU member-states qualify for the Safe programme, as well as Ukraine, the four European Economic Area States – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland – and as six other countries which have signed common defence agreements with the EU – Albania, Japan, Moldova, North Macedonia, South Korea and the United Kingdom, which signed an agreement with the EU in May.

Safe will provide long-term, low-cost loans to help EU member-states procure urgently needed defence equipment.

EU member-states must submit to the European Commission their national investment plans under Safe by end of November. The Commission will then assess these national plans, with the aim of making the first disbursements in early 2026.