Specialists in airbase technology will come to Cyprus in January to give their views on the upgrade of the Andreas Papandreou airbase in Paphos, the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, said in an interview with the newspaper “Phileleftheros”.

“We decided to move forward with the upgrade of the naval base in Mari and the upgrade of the air base in Paphos. I have before me a note that says the cost is 14.7 million euros and the implementation time is 18 months. We have discussed with the Americans who are interested and who used the Andreas Papandreou base for humanitarian purposes,” he said.

The Cypriot President noted that whether the Americans help us or not, the base in Paphos will be upgraded. He clarified that the involvement of the Americans will be either with technical assistance or financial assistance.

“In any case, the base will continue to be a base of the Republic of Cyprus. About the naval base, I am talking with the President of the European Commission. I spoke again recently about financial contribution from the EU through a specific programme that the Union has, so that the base can accommodate any ship from a member state of the European Union,” he said.

He stressed that both bases will continue to be bases of the Republic of Cyprus. “There is no question of giving a base to anyone else,” he said.

The Cypriot President said that we have not denied anyone the bases for humanitarian reasons and that they were also used to remove Chinese citizens.

He noted that we do not want to lose our comparative advantage due to our geographical location, noting that at the same time Cypriots are being trained at the bases.

“Regarding the US military schools, we have sent four names of interested parties. We will soon have more announcements in this direction in relation to our military cooperation before the end of Joe Biden’s term,” he said.

President Christodoulides rejected criticisms that Cyprus is being turned into a base for the West, while on the proposal on Syria he recalled that in 2012 Cyprus was used as a base for the unit that dealt with chemicals in Syria, “and we said we are ready to play this role” and that there is an issue of missing persons in Syria, “we have the expertise , we are ready to take the initiative and help in this matter.”

On the issue of NATO membership, President Christodoulides said that because Cyprus’ membership is not feasible at this stage, we are trying in terms of training, know-how, reorganization “to ensure these advantages and when the conditions are created we will become a NATO member state.”

“It is in our thoughts to buy American armaments,” he said at another point.