Turkish threats against activities in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus are “nothing new” Energy Minister Yiorgos Lakkotrypis said on Monday.

Asked to comment on a relevant announcement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry, last Friday, Lakkotrypis said Ankara displayed a similar conduct back in 2011 and 2012 and called for calm and sober reactions.

Nicosia, he went on, will continue to align its energy interests with other countries and the EU.

“We need to face [threats] dispassionately, soberly and we certainly need to be well prepared” the Minister noted.

Our effort, he went on, is to continue aligning our energy interests with other players, like we did recently with the East Med pipeline “where both Italy`s and EU interests are met”. Commenting on the latest licensing round, Lakkotrypis said that Nicosia managed to attract energy giants to operate in the EEZ.

As part of the third licensing round, the government of Cyprus signed recently an exploration and production sharing contract for EEZ block 10 with the ExxonMobil Corporation and Qatar Petroleum consortium. Similar contracts were signed with ENI and Total for block 6 and with ENI for block 8.

The East Med or Eastern Mediterranean pipeline project aims to connect natural gas resources located in the Levantine basin with European countries, via Cyprus and Greece.