Cyprus Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos has told Breitbart News that President Donald Trump is in a “unique position” to reshape the global order in a way no American president has managed in generations — and that Cyprus is ready to act as Washington’s bridge to the Middle East.
Speaking exclusively to Breitbart News in Washington, where he was attending the Delphi Forum, Kombos said the EU must abandon any adversarial posture towards the United States and engage more actively with the Trump administration.
“The EU cannot and should not be seen as an adversary,” he said. “On the contrary, we see that there is great potential for making the relation grow in terms of trade.”
Cyprus, he argued, is uniquely placed to facilitate that engagement.
The island holds the rotating EU Council Presidency for the first half of 2026 and has cultivated strategic relations with the United States, the United Kingdom, France, India, the UAE, Israel, and the broader Arab world.
“Cyprus is a country that has made this foreign policy focused on both the EU and the U.S., and having extremely useful regional role with the Arab world and with Israel,” Kombos told Breitbart News.
‘This is not Trump one’
Kombos pushed back against European officials who believe Trump’s second term will mirror his first, telling Breitbart News that the situation is “completely different.” He argued that Trump’s election victory in 2024 was a clear mandate and that European leaders who hope for a return to the pre-Trump era are misreading the moment.
“It’s been documented in public and stated in public during the election campaign,” Kombos said. “So naturally, things are very different, and one of the misconceptions that third parties have been doing relates to thinking that this is going to be like Trump one.”
Rather than pulling back, Kombos said he is pushing fellow Europeans to engage more deeply with Washington. “At these times of difficulty, of unpredictability, we should be engaging even more,” he told Breitbart News.
India deals and IMEC
While Kombos was in Washington, Trump announced a trade agreement with India. Kombos told Breitbart News the EU-India trade deal concluded days earlier had acted as a catalyst for the US-India agreement. “It’s not something that is excluding anyone but at the same time if you are opening pathways this automatically is creating space for expanding that,” he said.
Kombos said both deals could advance the IMEC — the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor — a proposed connectivity route linking India and the United States through the Middle East and Europe, which he described as strategically significant for Cyprus and for the western world.
Maritime power and the 3+1 framework
Kombos told Breitbart News that maritime lanes will define future geopolitical and economic power. He pointed to Cyprus’s position as operator of the world’s 11th largest commercial fleet, with over 20 per cent of third-party ship management taking place there.
He said the 3+1 framework — the geopolitical alliance formalised through US legislation linking Washington, Greece, Cyprus, and Israel — needs to be implemented, expanded, and projected as a working alliance, and called for a renewed strategic dialogue with the United States to advance it beyond the energy sector, where American companies ExxonMobil and Chevron are already active in Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone.
American companies ExxonMobil and Chevron are already active in Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone, he noted.
A presidential visit?
No sitting American president has ever visited Cyprus, though vice presidents have done so in the past. Breitbart News noted that it accompanied then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to the island in September 2020 during Trump’s first term.
Kombos said Trump would be welcomed if he visited, telling Breitbart News: “Landing in Cyprus, you can realise the proximity to all the countries around us. It’s about a few minutes — a matter of minutes.”
Visa waiver push
Kombos said Cyprus has met every technical requirement for inclusion in the US Visa Waiver Programme, pointing to a rejection rate of 2.55 per cent — which he described as the fourth lowest in the world — yet the island remains excluded.
He argued Cyprus poses no immigration risk, given its population of around one million, and that inclusion would strengthen business and people-to-people ties with the United States.
Gaza, Syria and the Board of Peace
Kombos told Breitbart News that Cyprus has sent more than 32,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid to Gaza through a maritime corridor and said it may be the only country with authorisation to send medical equipment into the territory.
He expressed support in principle for Trump’s “Board of Peace” for Gaza but said it had been rolled out too quickly for many nations to join through their constitutional processes, and called for a pathway that makes it easier for states to participate.
On Syria, Kombos said the situation remains a serious concern, particularly regarding religious and ethnic minorities.
Cyprus is financing projects to support Christian communities in Syria, he said, and the Cypriot president has appointed a special representative to focus on the issue — a representative who joined Kombos in Washington for his meetings, including with Breitbart News.
“We do not have the luxury of failing,” Kombos told Breitbart News, referring to the broader challenge of stabilising the region. “The cost of not succeeding will be dear for everyone.”
(information from Breitbart News)
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