The mission of the Ministry of Defence is to safeguard the independence, territorial integrity and sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus.
The continuous and intensifying upgrading of the defence capabilities of the country and the National Guard is necessitated by the intransigence and the increasingly aggressive attitude of the occupying power.
Thus, in the preceding five years, specific objectives were set in six pillars.
1. Strengthening defence cooperation relations with other states in order to create conditions of security, peace and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean.
In this context, bilateral and trilateral cooperation in the fields of defence and security was developed with 16 regional and European countries and with other important countries active in the region such as the United Kingdom and the United States.
In this context, bilateral and trilateral cooperation in the fields of defence and security was developed with 16 regional and European countries and with other important countries active in the region such as the United Kingdom and the United States. An important development is the quadrilateral cooperation between Cyprus, Greece, Italy and France.
In particular, the steady and substantial upgrading of our relations with the United States has started and continues, with the most recent example being the signing of the Bilateral Agreement on the Provision of Services and Administration (ACSA), as well as Washington's decision to completely lift the embargo on the sale of US arms to the Republic of Cyprus for one year from 1 October 2022.
2. Strengthening the operational capability of the National Guard. In the past period, the combat power of the National Guard was strengthened by upgrading and modernizing its equipment and through co-training with other advanced military countries.
The Ministry of Defence proceeded with steady steps in the execution of the armament programme, prepared in cooperation with the National Guard, raising the budget for defence armouring to the highest level in the last 20 years, always within the framework of the financial possibilities of the state.
3. Implementation of innovative and reform actions. Easy access for citizens to carry out their conscription obligations through the KEP-CEPOs, the "Declaration of Individual Conscript Data" for 16-year-old males, the "Declaration of Selection Classification" and the SYOP Recruitment Submission through the online platform "Gov.cy".
In the framework of the "ATHENA" action, national research and innovation actions amounting to approximately EUR 900,000 were implemented with the award of two projects to Cypriot consortia.
The participation of Cypriot entities in 17 programmes of the European Defence Industrial Development Programme (EDIDP) and the European Defence Fund was supported financially and administratively.
In cooperation with the Research and Innovation Foundation, the MoD has recently launched new R&D projects in the field of dual use technologies, drawing a total of EUR 3 million from the Recovery and Resilience Fund.
4. Simplification and improvement of the legislative and regulatory framework with measures to combat runaway militancy, which was reduced to 1.8%, and the modernisation of laws and regulations governing the Army of the Republic and the National Guard.
5. Strengthening the efficiency of financial resources and the budget. Bidding procedures were streamlined and specifications were prepared by specialized centers with regard to materials. The absorption of the approved budget reached 96%.
6. Taking actions to reduce the energy footprint and operate the camps with renewable energy sources as part of the Ministry's environmental and energy policy.
For the energy saving programme, funding of EUR 19 million has been secured from the European Structural Funds (Thaleia Programme) for the installation of photovoltaic systems with a total capacity of 12 MW. The project will start in early 2023 and the phased implementation is expected to be completed in 2027. The National Guard is evolving into an effective, efficient and flexible deterrent force that is constantly improving and adapting to modern conditions. Charalambos Petridis, click here.
(NΓ/ΣΧ)
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