A bipartisan bill that provides for the extension of the duration of the waiver of the arms embargo on the Republic of Cyprus from one to five years has been submitted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by Democratic Senator Cory Booker and Republican Senator Jerry Moran.
The initiative, it is noted, aims to ensure greater stability in military cooperation between the United States and Cyprus, so that an annual renewal of the embargo exemption is not required.
The vote in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled for Wednesday, 22 October. Although final approval by the full Senate is required, a positive vote in the Committee is expected to give significant momentum to the legislative progress of the measure.
The Link to the House of Representatives
This development is directly linked to proceedings in the House of Representatives, where Greek-American Congressman Chris Pappas has included a corresponding provision in the State Department Reauthorization Act, the annual bill that sets the policies and priorities of US diplomacy.
However, there is no corresponding version of the bill in the Senate. This means that, for the embargo waiver to proceed in practice, the bill will either have to follow an autonomous path and be approved by the plenaries of the House and Senate as a standalone bill, or be incorporated as an amendment into the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA), which determines the annual defence budget of the United States.
If the Booker-Moran bill ultimately receives the “green light” from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday, combined with the fact that the proposal has already been approved by the House Foreign Affairs Committee through the State Reauthorization Act, then the chances of it being included in the final text of the NDAA will be significantly enhanced.
What the Booker-Moran Bill Provides
The bill submitted to the Senate amends two key pieces of legislation that include references to the need to renew the lifting of the embargo on Cyprus.
Specifically, it amends Section 205 of the Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act (EastMed Act) of 2019, as well as Section 1250A of the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) of 2020.
In both cases, the bill replaces the phrase “one fiscal year” with “five fiscal years”. With this change, the embargo waiver will not require annual re-approval from the State Department but will be valid for five years before a review is required.
