PM Narendra Modi and President Nikos Christodoulides of Cyprus attend joint press meet in New Delhi

Your Excellency, Prime Minister Modi, I feel exceptionally honored and privileged to be in Delhi for this state visit, almost a year since your historic visit to Cyprus. And we stand together in marking another milestone in further strengthening the longstanding bonds between our two countries and in deepening and expanding our strategic cooperation. In this context, in this first visit to India as President of the Republic of Cyprus, my focus is on our bilateral relations, but at the same time on the broader strategic relationship between India and the European Union. And Your Excellency, these two strands are connected and mutually reinforcing. Today I am not here only in my capacity as President of the Republic of Cyprus. I am also here in my capacity as President of a member state of the European Union that proudly holds the presidency of the Council. And so these paths cross at the juncture when both our bilateral relations and the European Union-India relations have made leaps of progress over the last year, and we are here to put more building blocks to these two partnerships. Dear friends, in our discussions today, the Prime Minister and I reaffirmed that our relations have entered a new era. Over the past year, accelerated by the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Cyprus, our partnership has advanced with remarkable speed and determination. What began as a strategic vision is now evolving into a concrete partnership, a partnership already producing tangible results across key areas including security, defense, technology, innovation, maritime cooperation, education, and economic connectivity. And I am very pleased that one of the deliverables today is the creation of a joint task force on cooperation in key sectors such as infrastructure, shipping, and economic cooperation. And at the same time, I am very pleased that building on the joint declaration on the implementation of our strategic partnership agreed during the Prime Minister's visit last year, our two countries signed today a series of memoranda of understanding and a road map to further deepen cooperation across strategic sectors. Together, these agreements reflect both the breadth of our partnership and our shared commitment to further expand the horizon of Cyprus-India cooperation. Dear friends, this historic bond, this affinity between our countries and our peoples goes back centuries. Cyprus-India relations are rooted in shared historical experiences and common values. They were forged through common struggles for freedom and the right of peoples to self-determination. And those relations are consistently strengthened through our shared commitment to peace, democracy, and respect for international law. And today, in an increasingly fragmented world, this partnership must be seen in a new light because Cyprus and India are once again called upon to work together and address the challenges of a changing world. Dear friends, as I referenced at the outset, in these times of growing geopolitical uncertainty, I firmly believe that the partnership between the European Union and India must become even stronger because this relationship is no longer driven only by economics. It is evolving at a fast pace into a broader comprehensive strategic partnership grounded in shared interest, shared responsibilities, and a common commitment to stability, resilience, and prosperity. Indeed, Europe and India have every reason to deepen their cooperation further on security, on trade, on technology, innovation, and of course connectivity, because together the European Union and India, the world's largest democracies, can play a defining role not only for our regions but also for global stability and prosperity. And this is why I am particularly pleased to be here during the Cypriot presidency of the Council of the European Union, a presidency guided by openness, openness to partnerships, and openness to the world, a presidency that firmly believes that European Union-India relations will be one of the defining partnerships of the coming decades. In this context, dear friends, I greatly welcome the strong momentum already developing in EU-India relations, clearly demonstrated during the European Union-India summit here in January, progress on the milestone free trade agreement creating one of the world's largest free trade zones and a market of 2 billion people, the security and defense partnership, and the joint comprehensive strategic agenda sent a clear message, a message of confidence, ambition, and deeper cooperation across trade, security, technology, and global governance. And as the President of the Commission very correctly stated, this is a tale of two giants who choose partnership in a win-win fashion, because cooperation between the world's two largest economies and democracies is the best answer to the global challenges we face, the best investment for our people. And let me also underline this: the European Union-India partnership is an integral part of the vision of the Cypriot presidency for a Union that is more open to the world. Dear friends, in this path, in this effort, Cyprus is uniquely positioned to serve as a trusted, stable, reliable bridge between India and Europe, a bridge between the European Union, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the wider Middle East. In this context, we continued our conversation with the Prime Minister about regional connectivity initiatives, including of course the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. Let me stress once again that I consider this a visionary initiative reflecting the growing importance of trusted interconnection between the Indo-Pacific, the Middle East, and Europe. And Cyprus, located at the crossroads of three continents and the gateway to Europe, stands ready to contribute actively to this shared vision, a vision of connectivity, a vision of openness, a vision of partnership. And this is why, upon the initiative of Cyprus, we have formed the Friends of the Group, a group that brings together signatories and interested EU member states to advance connectivity, stability, and economic cooperation across our wider region. Dear friends, Prime Minister Modi and I also discussed broader regional and international developments, reaffirming our shared commitment to international law, the United Nations Charter, and of course effective multilateralism, principles that matter today more than ever before. And in this context, allow me to sincerely thank the Prime Minister on behalf of Cyprus and the Greek Cypriot people. We deeply value India's longstanding support for our efforts to reunify Cyprus. And I wanted to thank you for your steadfast support for the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of the Republic of Cyprus. In this regard, I wish to take this opportunity to reiterate that Cyprus also supports India's growing global role, including its rightful place in a reformed United Nations Security Council, because, Your Excellency, global governance must reflect today's realities. Ladies and gentlemen, today's meeting stands as a confirmation that India and Cyprus are not simply strengthening bilateral ties. We are building a partnership with strategic depth and global relevance for our countries, our peoples, and for our respective regions. A partnership built on trust and on the conviction that dialogue and cooperation, not confrontation, is the path forward. Because nations like ours do not pave the way to the future through walls and divisions. We do it through building bridges, through dialogue, through cooperation and growth for Cyprus and India, for Europe and India, for the centuries behind us and the future ahead of us. Thank you very much.