Cyprus is upgrading key military installations with funding from the United States to enhance its role as a regional safe haven for evacuees from the Middle East and as a humanitarian aid hub. The main Evangelos Florakis naval base, located 142 miles from Lebanon's coast, will receive a new heliport funded by US European Command, capable of accommodating large Chinook-type transport helicopters for airlifting evacuees.
In the island's southwest, the Andreas Papandreou air base will be expanded to include a new apron for heavy-lift military transport aircraft, allowing quicker refuelling and maintenance for humanitarian missions. The US is financing these projects as part of a wider upgrade programme, with work expected to start next year. Exact costs are still being assessed, but the US has allocated 500,000 euros for a development plan for the air base expansion.
Such US assistance would have been unlikely a decade ago, before Cyprus shifted from its non-aligned posture towards a Western orientation. President Nikos Christodoulides, elected in 2023, has leveraged Cyprus's geographic position to act as a diplomatic and humanitarian bridge to the Middle East, emphasising that the island is a 'credible and safe harbour'.
Cyprus has previously served as a transit point for evacuees from Sudan in April 2023 and after US-Israeli strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities in June 2025. In 2024, it activated the Amalthea maritime corridor to ship aid to Gaza. Numerous EU countries and the US have deployed personnel and aircraft in Cyprus for potential evacuations. Christodoulides has stressed that the use of military installations is restricted to humanitarian operations only.
The naval base will also get revamped port facilities for larger warships to provide aerial defence for transport helicopters. Meanwhile, the air base will host a new regional firefighting coordination centre, set to open next month, to assist Middle Eastern countries in battling wildfires. Lieutenant Colonel Paris Samoutis, a National Guard spokesperson, stated: 'Cyprus remains part of the solution, not the problem.'
