Greece, Cyprus, Israel: defence ministries meet in Athens, with a defence-industry working group on the table and pointed words for Ankara and Tripoli

The defence ministries of Greece, Cyprus and Israel stressed the importance of establishing a trilateral working group on the defence industry at the trilateral meeting held in Athens on Thursday, November 5. In the Joint Statement adopted at the end of the meeting, the three sides reiterated that the Turkish-Libyan memorandum on maritime zones cannot produce legal effects for third states. The text was published by the Israeli Ministry of Defence and by the Cypriot Ministry of Defence on its website, which took part with a delegation headed by its Director of Defence Policy. Nicosia also held separate bilateral meetings with the Greek and Israeli delegations on the margins of the trilateral.

Around the table sat the heads of defence policy of the three ministries, together with other senior officials. The starting point of the discussion was the Joint Declaration of the Jerusalem Summit of December 22, 2025, in which the leaders of the three countries defined defence as a central pillar of their cooperation and opened the door to other partners with a shared outlook.

A working group for joint development and production

The most concrete point concerns the defence industries. The three sides want to promote partnerships between companies of their countries and to examine joint development, production and technological cooperation. They also stressed the importance of establishing a trilateral working group, aiming to strengthen joint capabilities, improve interoperability and give the security relationship of the three states a stronger industrial base.

The agenda also included assessments of regional security, defence innovation, maritime security with an emphasis on protecting sea lanes and critical infrastructure, and disaster preparedness and response, as well as civil protection. To turn shared strategic interests into practical trilateral cooperation, the three sides considered exchanges of personnel, identifying joint initiatives and regular dialogue between the competent services.

Pointed words for Ankara and Tripoli

The statement devotes a separate paragraph to the memorandum between Turkey and Libya on the delimitation of maritime zones in the Mediterranean, which the Libyan House of Representatives ratified on October 20, 2026. The three defence ministries reaffirm that the memorandum infringes the sovereign rights of third states and ignores the international rules on maritime zones. Israel had already taken the same line at the political level, as in Foreign Minister Saar’s call with his Cypriot counterpart Kombos.

The three sides oppose unilateral claims, coercion, threats of the use of force and destabilising military concentrations, stressing that no country in the region should become a base for actions that threaten regional security. They reaffirm their support for the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of Cyprus, on the basis of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and international law, and call for respect for the law of the sea as reflected in customary international law.

The common threats listed include terrorism, the proliferation of advanced weapon systems and the destabilising activity of state and non-state actors. The three countries agreed to coordinate more closely against new threats. They also highlighted energy cooperation as a pillar of stability, opposing any attempt to obstruct it in violation of international law, and underlined the importance of freedom of navigation and the protection of critical infrastructure and energy supply routes for Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East.