Yesterday the Foreign Ministers of Cyprus and Russia discussed over the phone the Cyprus issue, the situation with the EastMed gas pipeline and recent events in Libya.

“There was a detailed exchange of views on the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean. Special attention is paid to the tasks of promoting the Cyprus settlement, including the role of the UN in this process,” the Russian Foreign Ministry website reported.
The Ministers also discussed joint activities on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Cyprus and agreed on steps to accelerate the preparation of a number of bilateral documents.

Special attention was paid to the issues related to the occupied territories and the Cyprus-Turkey conflict over the gas field.

For reference: The East Mediterranean Pipeline is a gas pipeline that should connect the offshore fields of the eastern Mediterranean Sea through Cyprus and Crete with mainland Greece. Its capacity could reach 10 billion cubic meters a year. The project is still in the design stage. (Wikipedia data)

Since 2009, large oil and gas fields have been found in the Eastern Mediterranean. Some promising areas of the shelf are still the subject of territorial disputes. And although the main deposits are found in the Cyprus Exclusive Economic Zone,
Turkey continues exploration in the same area. Despite the fact that the European Union and the USA condemn these illegal actions of Ankara the Turkish authorities also exacerbated the situation by signing a memorandum with Libya on the demarcation of maritime zones. This happened even before Greece, Cyprus and Israel signed the contract for laying the EastMed gas pipeline.

Source: CNA