Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara arrived in Lanarca on Sunday afternoon, where the prime minister is slated to meet with the leaders of Cyprus and Greece on production and transport of natural gas.
The Netanyahus were welcomed at the airport by Cypriot Defense Minister Michalis Giorgallas and Israeli Ambassador to Cyprus Oren Anolik.
“I remind you that in 2016, we established the trilateral eastern Mediterranean alliance,” Netanyahu told reporters prior to his departure.
“This alliance has been a major success. It has led to a major improvement in economic relations, including in tourism, millions of Israelis have visited Greece and Cyprus up to now, has led to an improvement in security relations, and of course we are also discussing the energy issue,” he said.
The prime minister said there are decisions to be made “soon” on the issue of energy “as a result of our having carried out another revolution, the extraction of natural gas from the sea.”
He noted that “as with the fence” political rivals opposed extraction of the precious resource, “as did professionals” but that his government insisted.
“This provides us not only with the natural gas needs of the State of Israel, but also the ability to produce for Europe. We have several routes for production,” Netanyahu commented.
The prime minister said the meeting in Cyprus will focus on the eastern natural gas pipeline or a liquefaction plant in Cyprus, “which would allow us to produce a massive amount of gas for Europe, which will also fill the state coffers.”
