The Multinational Civil-Military Cooperation Exercise "ARGONAUTIS 2023", which took place in the sea, air and land space of the Republic of Cyprus, was successfully completed today.
The exercise was carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense of Cyprus, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus, the Civil Defense Force and the Coordination Center for Search and Rescue, under the general coordination of the National Guard General Staff and with the participation of a large number of state agencies and services Republic of Cyprus.
It was carried out in three phases and had the purpose of testing the Special National Plans "ESTIA" and "TEVKROS", which concern the reception of civilians from neighboring areas, as well as the response to Mass Search and Rescue incidents within the area of responsibility of Cyprus Democracy.
The 1st phase was carried out under the coordination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus, and related to an exercise on paper and the implementation of the Special National Plan "ESTIA". The scenario concerned the evacuation and reception of civilians from a crisis area. 16 State Services of Cyprus and representatives of the 18 States participating in the Non-combatant Evacuation Operations Coordination Group (NEOCG) participated.
The 2nd phase of the exercise, which related to Search and Rescue, was carried out under the operational coordination of the Search and Rescue Coordination Center and examined the scenario of a naval and air accident in the land and sea area of Cyprus, with the application of the Special National Plan "TEVKROS", to deal with Mass Rescue incidents.
Services from the Republic of Cyprus, Greece, the United Kingdom, France, the United States of America, Italy, Egypt and Israel participated in the Search and Rescue scenario, with a total number of personnel of around 800 people and 49 aircraft. In this phase, Greece participated with an Air Force Super Puma that flew to the exercise area and then after landing at the Paphos base for refueling, returned.
The 3rd and final phase also constituted the Day of Distinguished Visitors (DVDay). It was held during the afternoon hours on May 18, 2023, with the practical application of the Special National Plan "ESTIA", with a scenario that involved mass arrivals of civilian citizens of foreign countries in Cyprus and their reception and management by state agencies.
The exercise was attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Konstantinos Kombos, the Minister of Defense Mr. Michalis Giorgallas, the Chief of Defense Forces, Lieutenant General Demokritos Zervakis and ambassadors or representatives of 25 countries.
The aim set by the Minister of Defense, as the responsible Minister for its implementation, have been achieved, as the agencies involved in the implementation of the "ESTIA" and "TEVKROS" National Plans had the opportunity to implement and evaluate their operational procedures to deal with incidents of mass reception of civilians and to maintain a high degree of preparedness, to deal with incidents of a similar nature.
At the same time at the international level, the successful execution of the exercise highlighted in practice the very important role that the Republic of Cyprus can play, as a hub for the provision of humanitarian operations and a pillar of stability in cases of crises in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region.
It is noted that the importance of similar exercises, as well as the level of preparedness of the state services, were highlighted during the operation to evacuate civilians from Sudan, where, through Cyprus, a total of 2611 citizens, from 28 countries, were repatriated.
