Jordan's King Abdullah offers to station firefighting aircraft in Cyprus

Jordan’s King Abdullah II has offered to station firefighting aircraft in Cyprus through the summer fire season, the Cypriot foreign minister said on Monday.

Minister Ioannis Kasoulidis thanked the Jordanian monarch following talks with his Jordanian counterpart, Ayman Safadi.

King Abdullah’s offer comes two weeks after Kasoulidis pitched to his Greek and Israeli counterparts the creation of an east Mediterranean firefighting hub aimed at quickly addressing huge summer wildfires that could overwhelm any single country.

Kasoulidis made the proposal during a virtual meeting of the three countries’ top diplomats as well as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, aimed at closer cooperation on energy, the economy, climate action, emergency preparedness and counterterrorism.

Cyprus, Greece and Israel have often assisted each other in recent years by sending firefighting teams, gear and aircraft to help combat massive wildfires. The Cypriot proposal would streamline and speed up the dispatching of such assistance. Greece struggled to fight massive wildfires last year.

Cyprus, Jordan and Greece have a trilateral cooperation arrangement that aims to strengthen their defense and security ties.