Cyprus- India relations
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2018
Curbing money laundering
India, Cyprus vow to curb money laundering, September 3, 2018: The Hindu
President Ram Nath Kovind holds talks with Cypriot counterpart Anastasiades
India and Cyprus signed two agreements on combating money laundering and cooperation in the field of environment as President Ram Nath Kovind met his Cypriot counterpart Nicos Anastasiades and held wide-ranging talks here.
Mr. Kovind is in Cyprus on the first leg of his three-nation visit to Europe to continue India’s high-level engagements with European countries.
Economic cooperation
Mr. Kovind and Mr. Anastasiades exchanged views on economic cooperation.
India was the fastest growing major economy in the world today with a growth rate of 8.2% last quarter, Mr. Kovind said.
“In this context and given Cyprus’ niche expertise in financial services and investment banking, both of us agreed that there was much scope to deepen our investment partnership,” he said in a statement.
“We welcomed the signing of the MoU between Financial Intelligence Unit, India, and Unit for Combating Money Laundering of Cyprus.
“This agreement would further strengthen the institutional framework to facilitate investment cross-flows. We also emphasised that the revision in the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement made in 2016 provided greater opportunities for our investment partnership to grow,” Mr. Kovind said.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet: “India and Cyprus signed two MoUs [memoranda of understanding] today on combating money laundering and cooperation in the field of environment in the presence of Presidents of both countries.”
Mr. Kovind and Mr. Anastasiades held discussions on issues of mutual interest, including promotion of business collaboration in the fields of IT and IT-enabled services, tourism, shipping and renewable energy, Mr. Kumar said.
“President Anastasiades and I held detailed discussions on the way forward for our long-standing and excellent relations. I reaffirmed India’s unwavering support to Cyprus for upholding its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Global issues
“We reviewed our ongoing bilateral and multi-lateral engagements and discussed issues of regional and global concern. We underlined our common objectives to negotiate the challenges that lie ahead. And we committed ourselves to further step-up our mutually beneficial ties, especially in the economic field,” Mr. Kovind said in the statement.
The President also paid tributes to a statue of Mahatma Gandhi.
“Our founding fathers, Archbishop Makarios and Mahatma Gandhi have blessed our partnership with timeless values, wisdom and foresight. We have the greatest respect for Archbishop Makarios in India,” Mr. Kovind said.
2025
India backs Cyprus in its fight against Turkiye
Sachin Parashar, June 17, 2025: The Times of India
New Delhi : With Israel and Iran teetering on the brink of a full-blown war, PM Narendra Modi on Monday said resolving issues through dialogue and restoring stability was the cry of humanity. Speaking alongside Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides in Nicosia, Modi reiterated his message that this isn’t the era of war.
Modi’s visit to Cyprus — the first by an Indian PM in 23 years — saw the two sides discussing efforts to scale up cooperation in defence, security and connectivity with focus on IMEEC, with the PM strongly backing sovereignty and territorial integrity of the eastern Mediterranean country that is not recognised by Turkiye, a Pakistan ally.
“We both have expressed concern about the ongoing conflicts in West Asia and Europe. Their negative impact is not limited to that region alone. We both believe that this is not the era of war,” Modi said after his talks with the Cypriot president. Modi thanked Cyprus for its continued support to India’s fight against cross-border terrorism and announced a new mechanism for realtime information exchange to counter terrorism, drug and arms smuggling. The president reiterated Cyprus’s strong condemnation of the Pahalgam terrorist attack, backing India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In a show of solidarity with Cyprus, Modi visited the Green Line — a UN-controlled buffer zone that separates Northern Cyprus, an area occupied by Turkish forces in 1974, from the Republic of Cyprus — along with Christodoulides. This is significant in the context of Turkiye’s continued support to Pakistan that saw Ankara helping Islamabad militarily during the recent India-Pakistan conflict. Turkish President Recep Erdogan himself later said Turkiye would continue to stand by Pakistan though “good times and bad”.
Modi also reiterated India’s traditional support for Cyprus’s unity and for a peaceful resolution of the Cyprus Question based on UN Security Council resolutions and international law. Several of these resolutions call for withdrawal of Turkish forces from the island of Cyprus.
“India reiterated its unwavering and consistent support for the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and unity of the Republic of Cyprus. In this regard, both sides emphasised the need to avoid unilateral actions as essential for creating a conducive environment for the resumption of meaningful negotiations,” said a joint statement.
Modi said the two sides would prepare a roadmap to give a strategic direction to the partnership for the next five years. On the issue of terrorism, both sides reiterated in a joint statement their zero-tolerance approach to terrorism, rejecting any justification for such acts, under any circumstances. “They emphasised that those responsible for the attacks should be held accountable,” said the statement, while condemning the Pahalgam attack.
