Turkey, the Middle East and Cyprus’s U.S. Investment Boom

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. This was UN week. Many world leaders are about. And a good friend and a leader of the country of Cyprus with us today is we have President Nikos Christodoulidis. And. I should not have difficulty with Greek names, but sometimes, you know, we do. Mr. President, welcome to America. And how was your week in New York with all the U.N.

0:33 Speaker 2 Leaders? Good morning, John, and thanks for hosting me. It is always a pleasure, actually, to be back in New York. As you know, I studied here. I was here in 93 to 98. It was a very busy week, very busy, but at the same time, very interesting week because being in New York at this time, you have the chance

0:55 to see the leaders from all countries discuss, exchange views on the challenges we are facing. And one point that I would like to make that is positive out of this week is is the need that everybody understands, but we need to work together to face the challenges that we have today.

1:20 Speaker 1 I understand, and there’s many, many challenges in the world, and you are in a unique position. And the fact is that Cyprus was invaded by another NATO country many, many years ago, and now you’re in between, I guess, On your right-hand coast, you have Israel. You have Gaza.

1:48 And on your northern coast, you have Turkey. So you have challenging times. Tell us about it.

1:58 Speaker 2 Just to give the perspective, we are Cyprus. Cyprus is a member state of the European Union, but at the same time, we are part of the Italy. Just to give you an indication, Cyprus is 20 minutes flight away from Lebanon, 40 minutes away from Tel Aviv. 50 minutes away from Cairo, 25 minutes from Syria, 25 minutes from Turkey.

2:22 So we are a member state of the European Union. At the same time, we are part of this region of great geopolitical importance. As you very correctly mentioned, in 1974, Turkey illegally invaded Cyprus, and for 52 years they occupied almost one-third of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus.

2:42 So we are trying hard in order to resume negotiations and solving the Cyprus problem to reunify our country. At the same time, John, we are working very closely together with the U.S. government We see eye to eye on a number of issues and the challenges in the region, and we’re very glad that we see an enhanced interest

3:06 from the Trump administration with regards to the developments in the greater Middle East. So, like-minded partners, we are working together, Cyprus, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, UAE, together with the United States and some other European countries, and also to create conditions of stability and security. And I want to repeat it again, we see this advancing interest from the United States under the Trump administration, and

3:37 it is something that we greatly appreciate and we greatly welcome.

3:43 Speaker 1 We understand. You know, for many, many, many years, Beirut was the center of civilization and banking in that area. Beirut lost that title. And I believe that Cyprus has gained that title, that a lot of banking and headquarters of major institutions in Cyprus. Tell us about that.

4:07 Speaker 2 Yeah. And actually, the last two, three years, we see a lot of interest from U.S. companies to invest in Cyprus by bringing Cyprus. They have access to the European market of 450 million people. But at the same time, Cyprus is approaching a gateway for investments in the greater Middle East. The last year, we see investments in Cyprus

4:32 from NVIDIA, Black & Play, Testoren, a number of other U.S. companies. Exxon is there. Chevron is in our exclusive chronic zone. And pretty soon, we’re going to have more announcements from U.S. energy companies that they are investing in Cyprus. And we’re very glad that we have one of the highest growth rate in Europe. Our economy has a growth rate of

5:00 approximately 3.3%. Our public debt is 48% of our GDP. We have conditions of full employment with the unemployment to be 3.6%. We run a public surplus. And, as I told you, we have a lot of investments from the United States, from the countries of the region, Israel, Jordan, UAE, Saudi Arabia, India, and the economy is doing very well.

5:27 So I will be back in the States by the end of November, beginning of December. I will visit a number of states in order to talk with U.S. investors that they are interested to invest in Cyprus.

5:41 Speaker 1 Understood. What else would you like to tell the American people and the people worldwide? Because WABC is in 178 countries and 50 states. What would you like to tell them being here for one week with all the United Nations people?

6:01 Speaker 2 What I would like to say especially to the U.S. government and the U.S. people is that the geographical location of Cyprus in a region of great geopolitical importance. It’s a region that the United States should invest more politically, economically, socially, and we’re very glad that, especially with the current administration, we see this increased interest in our region. So we’re

6:36 looking forward to enhance even more our strategic relationship with the United States. We’re working very closely together on issues of defense and security, intelligence, trade, investment. And I really believe, John, that the sky’s the limit when it comes to our bilateral relations with the United States.

6:58 Speaker 1 Well, Mr. President, President Nikos is a duality citizen. And thank you for coming on today, this Sunday morning. And I’m glad you’re in New York. I’m glad you enjoyed New York for a week. And have a safe flight home.

7:16 Speaker 2 Thank you very much, John. Really appreciate it. Thanks.

7:19 Speaker 1 Thank you so much.