Christodoulides, Mitsotakis visit Greek frigate off Cyprus coast

President Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday visited the Greek frigate Kimon, which has been stationed off the coast of Cyprus since last week, after the island was hit by an Iranian-made drone a week ago.

Their visit to the frigate came after a tripartite meeting the pair held with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Andreas Papandreou airbase in Paphos.

Mitsotakis had at that meeting referred to the Kimon as the “pride of the Greek fleet”, after having done the same during a speech to the Greek parliament last week.

In addition to the Kimon, Greece has also stationed a second frigate, the Psara, off Cyprus’ coast, while four Greek F-16 fighter jets have for a week been located in Paphos.

Macron, meanwhile, was due to visit the French aircraft carrier the Charles de Gaulle, which he deployed to the eastern Mediterranean in the aftermath of last week’s drone strike on Cyprus.

He had also deployed the frigate Languedoc to the island.