Knob's letter to his Canadian counterpart – In due course conducting negotiations between the two parties with a view to concluding a comprehensive agreement
Agreement between the Federal Government of Canada and Cyprus agreed on August 6 regarding urgent removal operations of citizens, in case lives are threatened due to the situation in the Middle East >, as a result of the war in Gaza and Israel.
The agreement, between the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Constantinos Kobos and his counterpart Mélanie Joly, is published on a Canadian government website.
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In the letter that Mr. Kombos sent to the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs and which, after being accepted, mentions as “Agreement”between the two parties, the procedure to be followed between the two countries is described in the event that Canada needs to evacuate citizens via Cyprus, if lives are threatened, due to the situation in the Middle East, as a result of the war in Gaza and Israel.< /p>
The Minister proposes, in fact, in due course, to conduct negotiations between the two parties, in order to conclude a comprehensive agreement on the issue of the removal of civilians, as this specific agreement only concerns this specific case. As he notes, this is the practice followed by the Republic of Cyprus since 2020.
In her response, the Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs accepts the proposal of Mr. Kobos, both in terms of this agreement, but and to start negotiations for a future, universal agreement on the subject.
“The agreement is another strong demonstration of the strong friendship and solidarity that has united our countries and peoples for decades. I am deeply grateful for the generous hospitality during my visit in May and would like again, on behalf of the Government of Canada, to thank the Government and people of Cyprus for their unwavering support during these difficult times.”
Furthermore, according to Agence France-Presse, the Canadian armed forces have proactively moved resources to Cyprusto deal with an emergency situation, so that they are able to quickly evacuate nationals of the country in the event of a complete disruption of commercial flights.
As reported, Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, called on Monday the citizens of his country to leave Lebanon “immediately”, citing an “extremely dangerous situation” in the Middle East region.
“The responsibility of all Canadians (s. who are there) is to do everything they can to leave Lebanon while the airports are still open,” Trudeau said, stressing that the risk of escalating violence between Israel and the Lebanese Hezbollah is “real”.
There are some 20,000 Canadians in Lebanon, the authorities estimate. At the end of June, the Canadian government had stressed that it was discouraging travel to the country, citing the “unstable and unpredictable” situation. but “the best thing for Canadians to do is to avoid traveling to the Middle East”.
