The President of the Republic met with the President of Israel

The President of the Republic, Mr Nikos Christodoulides, who is paying a one-day working visit to Israel, met today with the President of Israel, Mr Isaac Herzog, at the Presidential Palace in Jerusalem.

At the end of the deliberations, President Herzog said: “President Christodoulides, we are extremely happy that you are here, and you should know that the fact that you’ve come here this morning when Israel is under attack from Gaza by enemies of ours who have no respect for human lives or the dignity of civilians, means a lot to us. It’s a show of friendship and solidarity and support. It shows the great relations and the closeness and the allegiance between our nations, which, of course, we would want to strengthen and enhance. It’s an opportunity to congratulate you on your recent victory and election as the President of Cyprus. I’ve known a few of your predecessors.

As you know, I feel a certain emotional affinity with your country and I follow it closely and with your great talents and the people you brought with you, I am sure you’ll advance your nation and we will be able to enhance and develop our relations, even further, on many issues.

You will be meeting the Prime Minister and discussing some of the topics that are essential, for example, the energy sector, which is very important, and we will be discussing other challenges as well. So welcome and good luck to you”.

On his part, President Christodoulides said: “Dear Mr President, thank you very much for this opportunity. Let me start by clearly and strongly condemning the recent terrorist attack. Let me assure you that Cyprus stands by your side and will continue to work together to face this kind of unacceptable acts.

Every time that I’m returning to Israel, I am feeling that I’m home. This is my first visit as the President of the Republic of Cyprus, two months after assuming my duties, and I think it’s a clear indication of the importance that I attach to our relationship.

I’m looking forward to our deliberations and of course, with the Prime Minister to see how we can enhance even more our excellent bilateral relations. You mention energy, a very important sector, defence, research and innovation, economy. We have a very specific proposal to put forward to the Prime Minister.

At the same time, regional developments are very important in Cyprus and Israel. Two like-minded countries, reliable democratic countries in the eastern Mediterranean. We need to coordinate our actions to tackle the challenges, but at the same time to take advantage of the opportunities. So thank you very much once again for this opportunity, and I’m looking forward to our discussions”.

(RM/NG)

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