Our defence policy aims to enhance our bilateral defence and military cooperation with key EU member states , the regional partners , building close military to military ties , forging close staff to staff contacts and enhancing our interoperability through exercises .
We are extremely gratified that in most recent years we have deepened our defence cooperation with traditional partners such us France , Israel , Egypt , and for the fact that we have established new avenues of cooperation notably with the USA , Germany and Gulf countries .
While maintaining strong military relationships in our Region , the Ministry of Defence is also developing internal military capabilities and allocate the country ’ s economic resources with a targeted and reasonable way keeping the balance between the sense of security and social welfare . We will continue to invest in defence and keep a high level of defence spending for materializing our reform and modernization programme .
We are also have a strong focus on research and innovation . Having attended last weeks DEFEA in Athens I am even more convinced that Cyprus and its national defence industries are more than capable to expand their wings have an extrovert approach . I had the pleasure to see a number of made in Cyprus products and materials and the interest showed by European and other defence industries to work with Cypriot companies .
The area of defence industrial cooperation is something that we will turn our focus in the coming weeks and months .
By Developing Local defence technological and industrial capabilities we envision to respond to our security challenges , as well as to foster a competitive , innovative and efficient Local Research and Innovation Ecosystem in Dual Use Technologies . Toward this effort , we support Cypriot entities in receiving EU funding from Research and Development funds , especially from the European Defense Fund .
Dear friends , distinguished guests , while working to enhance our defence capabilities , we strongly believe that peace is the best option for our region .
Our hope is that all countries of the region will seize this opportunity to engage in peace making , respect of international law , respect for the territorial integrity , sovereignty and sovereign rights of their neighbors to create an umbrella of security in our region .
Once more congratulations to the organizers and I wish to everyone a very productive and fruitful conference . Thank you for your attention .
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