The Multinational Civil-Military Cooperation Exercise "ARGONAYTES 2022", which took place in the maritime, air and land space (FIR and EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus, was successfully completed. The exercise was conducted in cooperation of the Ministry of Defence with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Civil Defence Force and the Rescue Search and Rescue Coordination Centre, in planning and coordination of the General Staff, with the participation of a large number of state agencies and services of the RoC.
The exercise was executed in three phases and aimed at testing the Special National Plans (SNP) "ESTIA" and "TEYKROS", which concern the reception of civilians from neighbouring areas, as well as the response to Mass Search and Rescue incidents within the area of responsibility of the Republic of Cyprus.
During the 1st and 2nd phase, under the coordination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General Staff, a paper-based exercise and implementation of the EES "ESTIA", with a scenario of evacuation and reception of civilians from a crisis area, was conducted with the participation of 24 State Services of the Republic of Cyprus and the representatives of the 20 States participating in the informal NEO CG (Non Combatant Evacuation Operations Coordination Group).
The 3rd phase of the exercise, which concerned Search and Rescue, was also the Distinguished Visitors' Day (DVDay) and was attended from the "ZION" Coordination Centre by the Minister of Defence Mr. Charalambos Petrides, the Minister of Transport Mr. Yannis Karousosos, the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Demokritos Zervakis, ambassadors or representatives of the participating countries, the Deputy Director of the EU Military Staff, Lieutenant General Giovani Manniore, the Vice Commander of the 6th US Fleet, Rear Admiral Jeffrey Spivey, Chief of Staff of the Saudi Arabian Joint Chiefs of Staff Rear Admiral Hamed bin Rafea Alarmi, Commander of the UNIFIL Naval Force Rear Admiral Marcus Mugge and Defence Attaches of countries accredited to the Republic of Cyprus. In addition, observers from Indonesia, Armenia, Armenia, Hungary, Jordan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Zambia, Switzerland, Poland, the Netherlands, Zambia and Germany participated.
The Search and Rescue phase was conducted under the operational coordination of the CSEED, in a maritime area South of Cyprus and the application of the EWS "TEKROS" was examined, with a scenario of a serious maritime accident on the high seas within the E-W area of the Republic of Cyprus, which is identical to the Nicosia FIR. In the exercise, the Republic of Cyprus participated with personnel and air assets of the National Guard, the Cyprus Police, the Ambulance Service of the State Health Services Organisation, the Civil Defence and the Lifeguards of the Provincial Administrations. Also participating with personnel and means were Greece, the United Kingdom, France, the United States of America, Italy, Egypt and Israel, as well as a vessel of the private company EDT Offshore. A total of 35 air assets and services with 700 personnel participated in the E-D phase.
The objectives set by the Minister of Defence, as the Minister responsible for the implementation of the exercise, have been achieved, as the services involved in the implementation of the National Plans "ESTIA" and "TEKROS" have had the opportunity to apply and evaluate their operational procedures for dealing with incidents of mass civilian reception and to maintain a high degree of readiness to deal with incidents of a similar nature. At the same time, at international level, the successful execution of the NEO exercise highlighted the very important role that the Republic of Cyprus can play as a hub of humanitarian operations and a pillar of stability in crisis situations in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region.
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