Cyprus aims to produce defence-related products, not only buy them, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Tuesday.
He made the remarks while attending the Defea (Defence Exhibition Athens) event taking place in the Greek capital.
He toured the exhibition and visited the Cyprus kiosk.
“I am glad that this year the participating Cypriot defence industry companies are in the double digits,” he told reporters.
“We are proud of the Cypriot defense industry. Our country may be small in size, but we have a highly promising defence industry, which for a number of years has brought to Cyprus considerable funding from the European Union.”
According to Christodoulides, today Cypriot companies “sell armaments to the defence ministries of a number of EU member-states”.
And going forward, he said, the Republic of Cyprus will no longer procure armaments without the participation of Cypriot companies.
“From now on, we shall invest even more in research and innovation, especially at the defence ministry, so that we can support all these Cypriot companies.”
He said that the Cypriot footprint in the next defense exhibition – to be held in France – would be even greater.
During his visit to the Athens exhibition, the president met with Greek defence minister Nikos Dendias.
The president was due to return to Cyprus in the evening.
The Cyprus Mail contacted Tasos Kounoudes, head of the Cyprus Association of Research and Innovation Enterprises (Carie), for a comment.
In a brief conversation, and asked about the president’s comment that Cyprus sells defence products to other European countries, Kounoudes said:
“Cypriot companies are engaged in multi-million euro contracts with European industry for the joint development of European defence systems.”
These include drones, electronic warfare systems, stealth material, and many more.
“It’s an emerging industry,” added Kounoudes.
