The presidential palace on Saturday acclaimed the current level of cooperation between the governments of Cyprus and Greece, saying that the holding of regular intergovernmental summits between the two countries has “established a stable coordination mechanism between the two countries”.

This, it said, has brought about “direct benefits for Cyprus in critical sectors, such as health, pharmaceuticals and transplants, energy, civil protection, education, migration, digital policy, and security”.

“Through systematic coordination at the level of governments and ministries, Cyprus gains access to expertise, infrastructure, and new collaboration opportunities which enhance the effectiveness of the state, improve public services, and strengthen the country’s position at a national level,” it said.

Annual intergovernmental summits between Cyprus and Greece have been ongoing since 2023, with the next one expected to take place in Cyprus in the autumn.

At the most recent summit, held in Athens in November last year, the two countries agreed to work together on a range of issues, including education, where they agreed to “exchange knowhow and good practices in critical areas such as linking education to the labour market”.

On the matter of health, both countries agreed to cooperate to bolster the effectiveness of preventative screening programmes, as well as to improve the functioning of hospitals, and accident and emergency units in particular, in both countries.

Regarding the issue of transport, they agreed to “take coordinated action to improve road safety”, while on the matter of justice, they agreed to “exchange knowhow in the important area of judicial reform and the speeding up of the administration of justice”.

Both countries also agreed to work together on the issue of housing policy and disaster risk assessment, with the aim on the latter of utilising “new digital tools … which enable the timely identification, forecasting, and mapping of risks from phenomena such as fires, floods, earthquakes, or extreme weather events”.

On the issue of digital policy, it was agreed that both countries would “participate in the transnational artificial intelligence gigafactories initiative” and work together to bring about a “unified Mediterranean digital governance system”.

Additionally, both sides also produced a joint statement on the Cyprus problem, reaffirming their “commitment to the joint effort to restart talks with the aim of achieving a solution for the reunification of the island on the basis of the agreed framework of the relevant United Nations security council resolutions”.

To this end, they also “expressed their expectation that Turkey will contribute substantially to the resumption and conduct of talks within the agreed framework so as to achieve progress in relations between Europe and Turkey”.