Cyprus’ Minister of Foreign Affairs Constantinos Kombos touched down in New Delhi on 29 October for a three-day official visit that both governments say will be used to ‘review progress in implementation of the India-Cyprus Action Plan 2025-29 and discuss the Comprehensive Partnership’. The visit comes just four months after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic trip to Nicosia and is widely viewed as the first major stock-taking exercise on the ambitious roadmap the two leaders adopted in June.
Although the agenda is broad, mobility issues are expected to feature prominently. Officials in New Delhi confirmed that Kombos and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will examine ways to streamline business-travel visas for Cypriot and Indian professionals, expand the existing internship programme for young talent and explore the mutual recognition of seafarer certificates—an important issue for Cyprus’ shipping sector and India’s large maritime workforce. Cyprus is also keen to attract more Indian technology companies to set up European headquarters on the island, using the recently relaunched Digital Nomad Visa and new fast-track work-permit routes for highly-skilled staff.
From an Indian perspective, easier access to Cyprus’ financial-services ecosystem is attractive for start-ups looking to passport into the EU. Industry groups have lobbied both capitals to conclude a bilateral social-security agreement that would exempt short-term assignees from double pension contributions—talks that diplomats say are ‘making steady progress’. Kombos is scheduled to deliver a public lecture at Sapru House on 30 October, where he is expected to outline incentives for Indian investors and announce a new quota of 1,000 postgraduate scholarships in Cyprus for STEM students, tied to post-study work rights.
Analysts note that geopolitical considerations also underpin the mobility push. Cyprus wants to diversify inward investment beyond the EU and Middle East, while India—embroiled in visa rows with several Western partners—sees smaller EU states as gateways for its rapidly growing expatriate community. Both sides view smoother people-to-people links as a confidence-building measure ahead of negotiations on an updated Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, which stalled earlier this year over permanent-establishment definitions.
For multinationals, any concrete deliverables on faster visa processing or social-security coordination would reduce compliance costs for project teams rotating between South Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean. Travel-industry executives in Larnaca say they are already preparing for a projected 25 % increase in India-origin traffic in 2026, citing charter-flight applications filed with Hermes Airports in the past fortnight.
Although the agenda is broad, mobility issues are expected to feature prominently. Officials in New Delhi confirmed that Kombos and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will examine ways to streamline business-travel visas for Cypriot and Indian professionals, expand the existing internship programme for young talent and explore the mutual recognition of seafarer certificates—an important issue for Cyprus’ shipping sector and India’s large maritime workforce. Cyprus is also keen to attract more Indian technology companies to set up European headquarters on the island, using the recently relaunched Digital Nomad Visa and new fast-track work-permit routes for highly-skilled staff.
From an Indian perspective, easier access to Cyprus’ financial-services ecosystem is attractive for start-ups looking to passport into the EU. Industry groups have lobbied both capitals to conclude a bilateral social-security agreement that would exempt short-term assignees from double pension contributions—talks that diplomats say are ‘making steady progress’. Kombos is scheduled to deliver a public lecture at Sapru House on 30 October, where he is expected to outline incentives for Indian investors and announce a new quota of 1,000 postgraduate scholarships in Cyprus for STEM students, tied to post-study work rights.
Analysts note that geopolitical considerations also underpin the mobility push. Cyprus wants to diversify inward investment beyond the EU and Middle East, while India—embroiled in visa rows with several Western partners—sees smaller EU states as gateways for its rapidly growing expatriate community. Both sides view smoother people-to-people links as a confidence-building measure ahead of negotiations on an updated Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement, which stalled earlier this year over permanent-establishment definitions.
For multinationals, any concrete deliverables on faster visa processing or social-security coordination would reduce compliance costs for project teams rotating between South Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean. Travel-industry executives in Larnaca say they are already preparing for a projected 25 % increase in India-origin traffic in 2026, citing charter-flight applications filed with Hermes Airports in the past fortnight.
