BICOM

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to Cyprus tomorrow for a one-day visit. This will be the first official prime ministerial visit the island. Energy and possible cooperation on natural gas explorations in the eastern Mediterranean are expected to dominate the agenda. According to a report in the Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu will discuss the possibility of building a gas pipeline to Cyprus, from which Israeli gas could be exported to Europe.

While tense ties between Israel and Turkey have undoubtedly done much to improve Israeli-Cypriot ties, one Israeli official quoted in the Jerusalem Post indicated that there were now enough “positive reasons” for the countries to co-operate “without bringing in a third party as the catalyst.”

Recently, Cyprus played a key role in efforts to thwart a protest flotilla that wanted to set sail for Gaza, consistently refusing to let those ships set sail from its ports. Nicosia also sent a helicopter and plane to Israel in December 2010 to help fight the Carmel Forest fire. Last July, Israel reciprocated by dispatching 10 generators to the island to relieve an electricity shortage caused when confiscated Iranian armaments at a navy base exploded and knocked out one of the country’s main power stations.

Netanyahu’s visit comes just under a year after Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias came to Israel, in the first visit by a Cypriot head of state in 11 years.