In an interview with the Cyprus News Agency on October 4, the new US ambassador to Cyprus, John Breslow, outlined plans to upgrade the Andreas Papandreou Air Base in Paphos to accommodate large US military transport aircraft. He also announced plans for more frequent visits by US warships to Cypriot ports and an expansion of joint military activities. But one statement carried particular political weight: his assurance that "the United States will protect Cyprus in the future." Although the remark does not constitute a formal US security guarantee, it reflects the growing cooperation between the two countries.
For a country that for decades maintained close ties with Moscow, viewed US foreign policy with suspicion and is not a member of NATO, the prospect of an expanded American military presence marks a significant geopolitical shift. It is perhaps the clearest indication yet of Cyprus's gradual loosening of ties with Russia and its increasingly close strategic alignment with the United States. The shift is particularly striking given Cyprus's political history.
In the years after it gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1960, the Republic of Cyprus sought to balance its relations between East and West. Under the leadership of Archbishop Makarios III, the first president of independent Cyprus, the country became a founding member in 1961 of the Non-Aligned Movement, a forum of nations that did not align with either of the two superpowers of the day: the United States and the Soviet Union. This approach allowed Nicosia to maintain close ties with the Soviet Union without severing its connections to the West.
Even after joining the European Union in 2004, Cyprus maintained strong political, economic and military ties with Moscow. Relations with the United States, by contrast, remained overshadowed by the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974 and the US's failure to take decisive action against Ankara. The United States prioritized maintaining its strategic relationship with Turkey, a key NATO ally, over taking a tougher stance against the invasion.
The US position fueled widespread anti-American sentiment in Cyprus, culminating in a violent demonstration outside the embassy in Nicosia on August 19, 1974, during which US Ambassador Roger Davies was shot dead. Mistrust deepened further in 1987, when the United States imposed an arms embargo on the Republic of Cyprus, officially intended to prevent an arms race on the island and avoid undermining efforts to resolve the Cyprus conflict. The US arms embargo contributed to the reliance of the Cypriot National Guard (the armed forces of the Republic of Cyprus) on Russia-made weapons systems, strengthening the Kremlin's position as a major military partner.
The response by Cyprus to Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 illustrated the strength of these ties. The Cypriot government expressed serious reservations about imposing tougher EU sanctions on Russia. Then-Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides warned that such measures could have devastating consequences for the Cypriot economy.
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