Following is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement, today (Tuesday, 28 July 2015), in Cyprus, after his meeting with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades:

"Mr. President, thank you, my good friend, Nicos. It's a pleasure for me to reciprocate your visit to Israel with a visit by myself and our delegation to your beautiful island, your beautiful people and your very friendly government. We feel among friends, and there's a reason for that. I want you to know that the reasons that this is my first visit outside Israel after my re-election, and your first visit is not merely that we're saving airline fuel. It's because there is a real closeness, which goes well beyond geographic proximity.

These are two democracies, Israel and Cyprus, on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean. We're very proud of our heritage and of our history. Cyprus has a rich history. In the last visit I had the opportunity to visit the magnificent treasures in your museum and I could see your past, the intertwining of the Jewish past in Cyprus, and of course Israel has an equally rich tradition that goes back to the days of the Bible, before the Bible and after the Bible. So we're very proud of our past and yet we are two modern countries that embrace the future with all its challenges but with all its exciting possibilities, and we believe that by cooperating we can actually make that future better for both our peoples and both our countries.

There is palpably a renewed energy in our relationship and I mean that figuratively and literally. There is energy. We have been blessed, blessed by God that there is mana not in the heavens but under the water, and we want to take it out. We think that by cooperating with each other we can take it out more easily, we can market it better to the betterment of both our societies. This is something that we are discussing very intensively and there are many possibilities and we're going to explore each one of them and make a decision, but it's based on cooperation.

Energy is the first field. The second field I would say broadly is the economy, and let me say that the President and I are giving examples to Israeli tourists and to Cypriot tourists. We want to increase tourism and we want to increase investments and economic activities both ways. I think that is again something that is beneficial to both our peoples.

The third area is security. We are faced with a very unstable world, which forges new opportunities but also presents new dangers. The dangers come primarily from militant Islam, either led by the radical Shiites headed by Iran or led by the radical Sunnis, at the moment headed by ISIS. These are two formidable dangers. They are expressed in many weapons and many attacks, but the most prevalent one that concerns Cyprus and Europe is of course the terrorism that emanates from these areas. Iran and Hezbollah organize a terrorist network that covers over thirty countries on five continents, including Europe, just about every country in Europe.

ISIS obviously endangers European societies, Western societies, African societies, the whole world, in its own way. And we are committed to help our friends, the same embattled societies counter the threat of terrorism, but also bolster our defenses in other ways and we are constantly in touch on this and prepared to do more with each other. I welcome that.

We want to achieve peace. Peace is dependent on security, and ultimately if you don’t have a capacity to defend the peace, it collapses very rapidly in our area. But peace also depends on the willingness of parties to talk to one another and to try to put ancient issues behind them or at least resolve them in a way that they don’t prevent us from seizing the future.

I want to extend my best wishes to you on your efforts. You have a difficult problem, we have a difficult problem, and we both hope for the best and for the success of your efforts to achieve peace with your neighbors and our efforts of course to achieve peace with our Palestinian neighbors.

I would welcome the opportunity to present Israel's position to the EU. I think this is a very worthwhile initiative that you, Nicos, have brought up. And you've often said to me after our conversations: Why don’t you have the opportunity to present these simple facts and these simple arguments to Europe? And I said: That's not a bad idea. I thought it was actually a very good idea. So we're pursuing this as well, continue to discuss this with the visit of Mr. Tusk in Israel in a few weeks, and we seek also a world I would say that enables people to live, to live in dignity, to live first of all and not die, to live in dignity and peace and prosperity and in freedom. This is something that offers an easy familiarity and a genuine friendship. We are part of the same civilization and we will protect our civilization.

Thank you, thank you very much, Nicos."