he successful implementation of the Multinational Civil-Military Cooperation (CIMIC) Exercise "Argonaut 2023" highlighted the very important role that the Republic of Cyprus can play, as a hub for humanitarian operations and a pillar of stability in case of a crisis in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region, a Ministry of Defence press release said on the occasion of the completion of the maneuver.
It also noted that the objectives set by the Minister of Defence, have been achieved.
The Multinational CIMIC Exercise 'Argonaut 2023' took place in the maritime, air and land area of the Republic of Cyprus and was 'successfully completed' on Friday, the press release said. It was conducted by the Ministry of Defence in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Civil Defence and the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre, under the general coordination of the National Guard, with the participation of many governmental agencies and services of the RoC.
The exercise was carried out in three phases to test the Special National Plans 'ESTIA' and 'TEFKROS', which deal with the reception of non-combatants from neighboring countries, as well as to confront mass Search and Rescue incidents, within the area of responsibility of the Republic of Cyprus.
The first phase was coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the General Staff of the National Guard and included a tabletop exercise on the implementation of National Plan 'ESTIA', with a scenario of evacuation and reception of non-combatants from a crisis area. 16 state agencies from Cyprus participated in the scenario and representatives of 18 countries also participated in the Non-combatant Evaluation Operations Coordination Group (NEOCG).
Phase 2 of the exercise, dealt with a Search and Rescue scenarios and was under the coordination of JRCC Larnaca. The Special National Plan 'TEFKROS', was implemented to deal with a naval and an aircraft accidents, occurred in the Republic of Cyprus' area of responsibility. A total of 38 aeronautical assets and services with 800 personnel from the Republic of Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, the UK, France, the United States of America, Italy, and Israel, participated in the SAR scenario.
The third and final phase of the exercise Argonaut, considered also as the Day of Distinguished Visitors (DVDay), was conducted in the afternoon of May 18th, 2023, with real life implementation of National Plan 'ESTIA', to deal with reception of non-combatants from foreign countries to Cyprus and their reception by the state agencies. The exercise was observed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Konstantinos Kompos, the Minister of Defence Michalis Giorgallas, the Chief of the National Guard, Lieutenant General Demokritos Zervakis and ambassadors or representatives from 25 countries, at the ZENON coordination Centre.
The objectives set by the Minister of Defence, as the responsible Minister for the overall coordination of the exercise, said the press release, 'have been achieved, as the involved services during the implementation of the National Plans 'ESTIA' and 'TEFKROS' had the opportunity to evaluate their operational procedures, confronting the mass reception incidents of non-combatants and maintaining a high level of readiness to deal with similar incidents'.
On an international level, 'the successful implementation of the exercise highlighted the very important role that the Republic of Cyprus can play, as a hub for humanitarian operations and a pillar of stability in case of a crisis in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region'.
It added that the importance of the exercise and the readiness of the state agencies was recently evaluated in real life crisis, during the evacuation operations executed for non-combatants from Sudan, where a total of 2611 people, from 28 countries were evacuated, to Cyprus (safe heaven) and then repatriated to their homelands.
Source: Cyprus News Agency