Egypt Dispatches Two Helicopters to Fight Cyprus Fires, Ministers Say

Minister of Energy, George Papanastasiou, and Egyptian Minister of Petroleum, Karim Badawi, announced in joint statements made on Thursday at the coordination center in Limassol the dispatch of two specialised helicopters from Egypt to assist in efforts to extinguish the fires that have been raging since yesterday in Paphos and Limassol, which are expected to arrive in Cyprus by this afternoon.

Speaking to media representatives, the Minister of Energy said that the Egyptian Minister of Petroleum is visiting Cyprus for discussions on energy issues, primarily the exploitation of the "Kronos" field.

He noted, however, that the priority today is the fires and added that as part of the discussion he had with the Egyptian Minister in the morning, but also following a request by Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos to his Egyptian counterpart, Egypt responded today and is offering assistance with aircraft, first aid, and other related assistance.

For his part, Badawi expressed on behalf the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, condolences “for the loss of life during these tragic fires to all the families and to all the people of Cyprus”.

“As soon as His Excellency got to be made aware of the situation, he immediately instructed to make sure that we provide all the support necessary to the government of Cyprus to be able to deal with the situation and to alleviate the situation," he said.

Badawi added that "there are two specialised helicopters that are currently being prepared to be able to be dispatched, to come here during the next few hours. We will be monitoring very closely in terms of the timing to make sure that they arrive as soon as possible in the next few hours here, to be able to bring tangible support to the people of Cyprus and all the ongoing operations.”

He added that Egypt is a strategic reliable partner for Cyprus “in good times and in challenging times” and shares these difficult times that the people of Cyprus are going through. “The President, the Prime Minister, all the Cabinet, we are all in this together and we will work to help bring all of the support to stop the fires and to also bring the support to the people who are impacted,” he noted.

Asked about other forms of support besides helicopters, the Egyptian minister said that President al-Sisi's instructions were to ensure that two helicopters with specialised crews and capable of providing specialized medical support would be available to assist those affected.

“We are in this together. As the situation is evolving and as the support will be required, we will be able to kind of work together to provide that support as one. The relationship between His Excellency, the President, and His Excellency, President Nikos Christodoulides, and all the government and the people of Cyprus is very special to the people of Egypt”, he stressed.

He added that the Egyptian side committed also to Minister George Papanastasiou for full collaboration in all different matters.

“We were here for different purpose initially but this actually brings much higher priority to all of us and we are committed to be able to provide all support required to be able to alleviate the situation as soon as possible and to be a reliable partner to the people of Cyprus”, he concluded.

In closing, Papanastasiou said that it was considered appropriate to begin discussions with Cyprus' immediate needs regarding the fire.

"Egypt responded immediately, namely the minister in question, my friend Minister Badawi, responded immediately, called the President and Prime Minister of Egypt, and they immediately responded with the assistance that was announced. So I would like to publicly thank my friend the minister, Egypt, the President of Egypt, the Prime Minister of Egypt, for the immediate response we are seeing and will see until this afternoon. We hope to see all the teams arrive in Cyprus and the helicopters to help us," he concluded.