Сiprus-france relations and problems of region security

Abstract

After gaining independence in 1960, Cyprus began to establish relations with other countries. However, the ethnic conflict between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in 1974 led to the actual division of the island into two state entities and to various forms of intervention by foreign states, including Greece, Turkey, France and also Great Britain and the United States. The purpose of the article is to analyze the history and current state of Cypriot-French relations, to study the whole range of French interests in Cyprus after gaining independence to the present. Methods used to achieve the goals of the study: historical and comparative analysis, systematization and generalization, retrospective method. The article emphasizes that from the very beginning of the Cypriot ethnic conflict, France has consistently advocated the territorial integrity of Cyprus and condemned the creation of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. In subsequent years, France contributed to the fact that Cyprus in 2004 became a member of the EU. But bilateral relations became most intense during the presidency of E. Macron in 2017–2022. The economic interests of France in Cyprus are primarily associated with the discovery of large gas reserves on the Cyprus shelf, for which several states are fighting in the Eastern Mediterranean region, among which Turkey is the most active. This struggle stimulates the establishment of military cooperation between France and Cyprus. The related 2017 bilateral treaty, which came into force in 2020, aims to contain Turkey. This treaty, the French-Cypriot military exercises and French efforts to resolve the Cyprus conflict aggravate French-Turkish relations and the political situation in the region. The analysis presented in this article, the study of the experience of these bilateral relations will be important for the development of appropriate strategies for international interactions for post-Soviet states, in particular, Ukraine.