US funding helps Cyprus upgrade military bases for its role as regional safe haven

PAPHOS, Cyprus, April 20, (AP): With help from US taxpayers, Cyprus is upgrading key military installations to strengthen the mission it has carved for itself as a safe haven in the eastern Mediterranean for evacuees from the conflict-wracked Middle East and as a humanitarian aid hub.

Cyprus' main Evangelos Florakis naval base, just 142 miles (229 kilometers) from Lebanon’s coast, will get a new, US European Command-funded heliport that will be able to accommodate large, Chinook-type transport helicopters for airlifting evacuees out of conflict zones.

In the island's southwest, the Andreas Papandreou air base will be expanded to include a new apron where dozens of heavy-lift military transport aircraft bringing in personnel and equipment in support of regional humanitarian missions can be refueled and undergo maintenance more quickly, Lt Col Paris Samoutis, a spokesperson for Cyprus' National Guard, told the Associated Press which obtained rare, exclusive access to the restricted facilities.

The US is paying for these two projects - part of a wider program of upgrades for both bases - to help Cyprus meet the requirements of large-scale operations in response to humanitarian crises. Work is expected to start next year. Exact funding for both projects hasn't been released as cost assessments are underway.

Samoutis said the US has put up 500,000 euros ($588,000) for a development plan that will determine the overall cost of the air base's expansion to include the new apron. Such US help would have been highly unlikely before a decade ago, when Cyprus shed its long-held, non-aligned diplomatic posture and made a clear turn to the West.

Diplomatic outreach to the US reached new heights under Cyprus' American-educated President Nikos Christodoulides, ending a US-imposed, decades-old arms embargo and ushering in new business opportunities.

Christodoulides since his 2023 election has leveraged Cyprus' geographic location to underscore to fellow European Union leaders and US administrations that the island nation is perfectly positioned to act as the West's diplomatic, economic and humanitarian bridge to a tumultuous Middle East. "As a conscientious and responsible partner, Cyprus remains a credible and safe harbor,” Christodoulides said in December.

In the past, the US military relied on two British military bases in Cyprus that the UK retained after the island gained independence from colonial rule in 1960. An aircraft hangar at one of the bases, RAF Akrotiri, was hit by a Shahed drone on March 2 that Cypriot officials said was launched from Lebanon.