Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Visit Cyprus for Talks With Christodoulides

Nicosia, Cyprus. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is due to travel to Cyprus on Thursday and Friday to meet President Nikos Christodoulides, according to the government spokesman.

Programme of the visit

Abbas will be received at the Presidential Palace, where the two leaders will first hold a private meeting. A working lunch with delegations from both sides will follow.

Related: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Hold Talks With Christodoulides in Cyprus on Thursday

RelatedPalestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Hold Talks With Christodoulides in Cyprus on Thursday

This will be the third contact between the two presidents since Christodoulides assumed office. The most recent took place in Palestine in May 2025.

Topics for discussion

The agenda includes the situation in the Middle East and the humanitarian role of Cyprus, notably the ‘Amalthea’ sea corridor used to send aid shipments to Gaza.

The two sides are also expected to address bilateral relations, ties between the EU and Palestine, developments in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the Cyprus problem.

The government stated that the visit reflects the “historical ties between Nicosia and Ramallah”.

Background of the relationship

Contacts go back to the 1960s and 1970s, when Archbishop Makarios brought Cyprus into the Non-Aligned Movement. The island recognised the State of Palestine right after its declaration in 1988.

A Cypriot representative office opened in Ramallah in 2009. Following the 2012 vote at the UN General Assembly, it was raised to the status of a full embassy, among the first of its kind in the EU.

Demetris Christofias, who was president from 2008 to 2013, gave the relationship a prominent place in his foreign policy. During his first official visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, he met Abbas in Ramallah, and the two men signed five bilateral agreements.