Security News > 2021 > January > US-Built Center in Cyprus to Offer Region Security Training

A U.S.-funded center in Cyprus will help train officials from countries in the eastern Mediterranean region and the Middle East on the latest techniques in border, customs, maritime and cyber security, the acting head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said on Monday.

Chad Wolf said the $5 million Cyprus Center for Land, Open-Seas, and Port Security will incorporate a mobile facility to instruct officials on how to best protect their key infrastructure and take part in cross-border cyber investigations.

He called the center an important result of a renewed American engagement in the Eastern Mediterranean region and "Of the strong relationship between the United States and Republic of Cyprus."

Cyprus Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides said talks are ongoing with officials from the U.S. and the European Security and Defense College to expand the center's operations to include counter-terrorism training.

Cyprus and the U.S. have forged closer security links in recent years, culminating in the 2019 congressional approval of the Eastern Mediterranean Energy and Security Partnership Act that underscores U.S. support for an energy-based partnership between Greece, Cyprus and Israel.

Under the Act, the U.S. is providing ethnically divided Cyprus with funding for military training and has partially lifted an arms embargo that was enacted 33 years ago to prevent a possible arms race harming talks with breakaway Turkish Cypriots.

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