Overview
- Leaders formally upgraded relations to a Strategic Partnership after talks in New Delhi on Friday, announcing a package of agreements to deepen cooperation across security and economic areas.
- The two governments signed multiple MoUs, created a Joint Working Group on Counter‑Terrorism, and unveiled a five‑year defence roadmap covering 2026–2031 alongside a cyber security dialogue and expanded maritime cooperation.
- Economic and connectivity measures include a Cyprus trade office in Mumbai due to open September 1, a plan to roll out India’s UPI payments system in Cyprus from 2027, and a joint target to roughly double bilateral investment over the next five years.
- Negotiations on a Migration and Mobility Partnership and a Social Security Agreement are in the final stages, steps that would ease movement and benefit roughly 16,000 Indians living in Cyprus, including students and IT professionals.
- Cyprus’s EU Council presidency and its location at the crossroads of Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean make it a gateway for India‑EU engagement and for defence industry links under EU programmes such as SAFE, while both sides reaffirmed support for sovereignty and India’s UNSC bid.