Cyprus acting as a bridge with the region is a continuation of the Informal European Council and now we have expanded the scope of this neighborhood, reaching as far as Saudi Arabia and India, Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said on Sunday.

He added that expanding Nicosia’s geopolitical footprint was declared a central goal of foreign policy since the day President Nikos Christodoulides took office.

Speaking to Politis after this week’s informal foreign ministers meeting, which included those of India and Saudi Arabia, Kombos said the meeting discussed what weaknesses of the international trade system have been identified, especially in terms of the supply chain, and how these issues can be addressed in the future.

“It also has to do with the issue of the India Middle East Europe Corridor within the framework of IMEC. It is also linked to the fact that there are various additional ideas which have begun to be discussed much more intensely due to the war in the region. Therefore, we thought it would be very important to highlight these possibilities at the European Union level as well,” he said.

The minister added that IMEC is a fairly ambitious inspiration, an idea that has not yet passed the stage of becoming a feasible project, for many different reasons.

“We aspire for Cyprus to be one of the entry points, and I deliberately use the plural, we will not talk about exclusivity, in Europe, and this is an effort that should take a specific form,” he said.

The IMEC initiative aims to connect India to Europe via the Middle East through a network of transport, energy and digital links, which has been widely seen as a potential alternative trade routeenhancing supply chain resilience.

Asked about Turkey’s role, the foreign minister reiterated that the government does not see the exercise of its foreign policy as a zero-sum exercise.

“We do not compete with anyone, always remaining realistic in trying to read the geopolitical data. And we certainly seek for our continuous diplomatic mobility to bring concrete results and deliverables that serve the interest of the state and the Cypriot people. Unfortunately, it is the neighboring country that operates with exclusions,” he said.

On cooperation with Saudi Arabia, Kombos said even more effort is needed commercially, including the private sector, to be consistent with the excellent political level of relations.