New Delhi, May 27: Turkey, which helped Pakistan militarily during last year’s ‘Operation Sindoor’, must be perturbed as its arch-rival Cyprus has just elevated its strategic relations with India and would be receiving defence equipment.
President of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides was in New Delhi on a visit during which he held extensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after which the two countries elevated their bilateral relations to Strategic Partnership.
This upgrade involves five-year defence roadmap and several pacts covering security, trade and connectivity.
The Roadmap for Bilateral Defence Cooperation (2026–2031) between the two countries provides an institutional framework for promoting defence industrial cooperation and technology partnership, while facilitating exchanges, training and capacity building.
Cyprus has expressed keen interest in India’s defence systems like BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles and kamikaze drones like Nagastra-1 and Skystriker.
These systems demonstrated their prowess during the brief 5-day military conflict between India and Pakistan in May last year after Pakistani terrorists carried out ghastly terror attack in Pahalgam in Kashmir in April.
If these systems are supplied to Cyprus, it would mark the first deployment of Indian-made weapons systems in the Eastern Mediterranean region.
THE TURKEY ANGLE
These initiatives may seem to be normal but there is a clear geopolitical signal to Turkey, which helped Pakistan militarily by providing drones during the conflict with India last year.
Turkey, otherwise also, has been maintained anti-India posturing and actions for long, mainly at the behest of Pakistan.
Similar to India-Pakistan relations, Turkey and Cyprus have deep animosity towards each other.
Turkey has occupied northern Cyprus since 1974 and maintains ongoing disputes with it over maritime boundaries and energy resources.
India and Cyprus’s strategic relationship, therefore, serves as a counterweight to the developments in the Middle East.
By strengthening ties with Cyprus, a democratic EU member in the Eastern Mediterranean, New Delhi has diversified its partnerships and reinforced a network of countries wary of radical extremism and the growing influence of the Sunni Pak-Saudi-Turkey axis.
Cyprus’s alignment with Greece further integrates this new relationship into broader Mediterranean dynamics.
Greece and Cyprus already coordinate closely on defence, maritime security and energy issues.
