Cyprus will pay €25 million towards the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) once a Navtex is issued for the resumption of survey work, President Nikos Christodoulides said in an interview on Plus TV, revealing an agreement reached with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“We reached an agreement with the Greek Prime Minister. I don’t know if I have said this publicly before, but I will tell you,” Christodoulides said.

“We agreed that Cyprus will pay the €25 million as soon as the Navtex is issued for the start of the seismic surveys.

“This is my agreement with the Greek prime minister, which of course we will honour,” he said, adding that provision for the payment had been included in last year’s budget and again this year.

Christodoulides also rejected suggestions of friction between Nicosia and Athens over the project.

“There is absolutely no friction with Athens,” he said. “Some are trying to present it as though there is friction, a different view or a different approach. There is nothing of the sort.”

In September 2025, Christodoulides said that “certain things” had to be implemented before Cyprus made the payment, adding that delays to the project affected its viability. He said at the time that €25 million had been provided for in the state budget for both 2025 and 2026.

Meanwhile Energy Minister Michael Damianos had already addressed the resumption of maritime surveys earlier, saying that a Navtex notice from the Greek government is expected within weeks, and said suggestions that private business interests in Cyprus were pressuring the government over the GSI’s implementation were without merit.

Damianos added that completion is expected around the end of 2031, highlighting that it would not be appropriate to give a firm timetable given the scale of the task.

In an interview with the Cyprus Mail in April, Damianos made clear that no final decision can be taken on the GSI without a full understanding of the financial burden. “Someone is going to pay the bill,” he said. “And whoever is going to pay needs to know what that bill is going to be.”