More than a state visit as Cyprus India ties come of age

Inside the presidential delegation visit to MumbaiCyprus’ state visit to India was always going to be measured through meetings, agreements and official photographs. For partner and chief operating officer at Oesterreichischer Lloyd Shipping Group Sunil Kapoor, however, it became something more personal, bringing together the country he came from, the island he chose and a partnership now clearly coming of age. In his account of the visit, Kapoor recalled that there are “phone calls that change your afternoon, and phone calls that change your year”. When Marios Tannousis, CEO of Invest Cyprus and, as Kapoor put it, “a man on a mission”, rang him one ordinary afternoon, he assumed it was the former. It was not. Within two minutes, Tannousis had informed him that he would be joining President Nikos Christodoulides on a state visit to India and participating in a high-level investors’ roundtable at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai. Kapoor had “approximately fifteen questions”, while Tannousis had “approximately zero answers, at least for the moment”, apart from one instruction to wait, because “everything will be told to you in time”. Anyone who has lived in Cyprus long enough, Kapoor noted, would recognise this response. It was not “evasion” or “indifference”, but “the island’s most reliable operating philosophy”, and one that, over nearly two decades, he had learned “almost always proves correct”. That familiar Cypriot mixture of uncertainty, patience and eventual order followed the delegation all the way to Mumbai. During the flight, Christodoulides took the time to meet every member of the delegation personally, a gesture that “set the tone for everything that followed”. When he reached Kapoor, the exchange turned lighter, with Kapoor introducing himself and remarking with a smile that he believed he was “the only Indian on the aircraft” and that, if he arrived safely in Mumbai, he could tell everyone at the roundtable that “Indians are very safe in Cyprus”. The president “burst into laughter”, but the light moment touched on something real. Kapoor described himself as “a curious case”, Indian by birth and Cypriot by choice, and, apparently, useful to have around when the delegation landed in Mumbai. Cyprus has become home to a growing Indian community, while the ties between the two countries now extend well beyond diplomacy and trade statistics. On that flight, Kapoor was, “in a modest way”, living proof of that. The delegation stayed at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, which Kapoor described not simply as a hotel, but “a statement”. The entrance was “alive with colour”, with marigold garlands, an aarti welcome ceremony, tabla and sitar music nearby, and air that “smelled of flowers and incense”. People moved in every direction with a purposeful energy that might resemble chaos to an outsider, but which, on closer inspection, Kapoor described as “a very particular kind of organised intensity that India does better than almost anywhere else in the world”. The following day, May 21, was the centrepiece of the visit. The Cyprus India Business Forum attracted a packed hall of business leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and government representatives genuinely keen to explore what the two countries could build together. The day also saw the signing of several memoranda of understanding between Cypriot and Indian institutions, a tangible sign that the visit had moved well beyond goodwill and into intent. Following the forum, a smaller group proceeded to the high-level investors’ roundtable, where what struck Kapoor most was not the attendance but “the quality of engagement”. These were not ceremonial discussions. People were asking practical questions and looking for real pathways to partnership. Kapoor’s role was not to speak as an expert, but simply as someone who had spent nearly twenty years building a life and a business in Cyprus. In a room full of people curious about the island, that turned out to be exactly what was needed. One theme that surfaced repeatedly was the India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor, known as IMEC. Cyprus’ role in this emerging framework, Kapoor noted, is significant. As “a maritime bridge at the crossroads of three continents”, Cyprus is not simply geographically convenient, but strategically necessary, a point that was not lost on the Indian side of the room. Some of the most interesting conversations happened away from the formal agenda, over coffee, at lunches and in the corridors between sessions. Kapoor spoke with representatives of a Bollywood production group curious about filming in Cyprus, a healthcare company exploring a wellness resort on the island, a shipping venture eyeing Eastern Mediterranean opportunities, a banking group interested in Cyprus’ financial services infrastructure, and a technology firm considering Cyprus as its European base. The questions were always practical, from how easy it really is to set up in Cyprus to what life is like for families relocating from India, and whether the government is “genuinely helpful or just politely helpful”. Kapoor answered as honestly as he could, not as someone reading from a brochure, but as someone who arrived in Cyprus with a one-way ticket and built something from scratch. That, perhaps, was the value of the visit beyond the formal programme. The most valuable outcome of any business delegation, Kapoor observed, is not the speeches delivered, but “the conversations that continue after everyone has gone home”. As the visit drew to a close, he found himself with one final responsibility, though nobody had formally given it to him. The delegation was returning to Cyprus on a charter flight, not from a regular terminal. The coordination involved local police, officials from India’s Ministry of External Affairs, protocol officers and a considerable number of other coordinators, all operating under time pressure. Somehow, Kapoor noted, and he was “genuinely still not sure how”, this became his problem to solve. On the flight out, the president had personally made his way around the entire delegation, making sure everyone felt welcome and looked after. By the time they headed home, Kapoor felt it was his turn to return the favour, making sure every single person boarded, every suitcase was loaded and nothing was left behind. Only when “the aircraft door closed and every seat was accounted for” did he finally exhale. Good experiences have a way of doing that. They create, as Kapoor put it, “a quiet sense of responsibility toward each other that outlasts the visit itself”, and that, more than any MoU, is what builds a lasting relationship. As the lights of Mumbai faded behind them, Kapoor thought back to Tannousis’ advice that everything would be told in time. In a typical Indian wedding, and as Kapoor noted, any Cypriot who has attended one will know exactly what he means, the journey may be spectacularly chaotic, but the ending is always beautiful because somehow everything falls into place. Kapoor came to Cyprus in 2007 on a one-way ticket, not entirely sure what he was heading towards. Eighteen years later, Cyprus returned the favour with “a two-way ticket to Mumbai and a seat at the table”, a moment he saw as the truest measure of what the island can do for those who choose it. As the two countries look to build on the momentum from Mumbai, the partnership between India and Cyprus no longer feels like a distant possibility, but, in Kapoor’s words, “an unfolding reality”, with Cyprus giving him “a home”, the India trip reminding him where he came from, and “somewhere between the two” an opportunity that neither country should waste.