Israel, Greece and Cyprus have adopted a joint declaration spelling out the areas where the three countries pledged to cooperate in seven fields: energy, tourism, research and technology, environment, water management, anti-terrorism and migration..

The leaders of the three countries, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, who met in Nicosia, hailed a “strategic alliance” in the eastern Mediterranean.

The declaration includes a clause expressing support for the unification of Cyprus and backing the UN efforts to solve the Cyprus-Turkish dispute “on the basis of international law and the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.” The leaders also expressed hope that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians would resume and culminate in a “just, sustainable solution.”

Netanyahu spoke of an ‘’historic meeting.’’

“I believe this meeting has historic implications,” he said. “The last time Greeks, Cypriots and Jews sat around a table and talked on a common framework was 2,000 years ago.”

He said the three countries could better promote “stability, security, prosperity and peace” by working together, rather than separately.

The joint declaration stressed that this new axis is not exclusive, and – in a nod to Egypt and even Turkey – stated that the three countries would gladly welcome other states that have similar goals into the alliance.

Netanyahu did not make any direct or indirect reference to Turkey in his statement. But on his way back to Israel, he told reporters that Israel was – in parallel with developments with Greece and Cyprus – trying to normalize ties with Ankara.

“This obligates preserving Israel’s vital interests,” he said, “but in the event that they are preserved, there is nothing preventing us from normalizing ties [with Turkey].”

Netanyahu told reporters that he stressed to the two leaders that their desire for the EU to assist in negotiations is not being matched by the positions the EU is taking. The EU’s stances are giving support to the Palestinians’ “all or nothing” positions, thereby distancing them from negotiations, he said.

During his public statement in Nicosia, Netanyahu said Israel, Cyprus and Greece decided to form a trilateral committee to examine the possibility of laying a gas pipeline from Israel to Cyprus, and then to Greece for export further on in Europe.

He also said the three countries are working on creating an “interconnected underwater cable” to connect their electricity grids.