A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is urging the Trump administration to make the Great Sea Interconnector, a planned electricity link connecting Greece, Cyprus and Israel, a strategic priority for the United States.
Reps. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) and Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) led the effort, sending a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. International Development Finance Corporation CEO Ben Black. The letter also calls for a classified briefing on the geopolitical challenges facing completion of the project.
The lawmakers said the interconnector could strengthen U.S. partnerships in the Eastern Mediterranean while supporting broader efforts to connect Europe, the Middle East and India.
“The Eastern Mediterranean will play a vitally important role as a gateway to IMEC,” they wrote, referring to the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor.
They described the GSI as “a key strategic infrastructure project” for the corridor and said the United States has an interest in ensuring that emerging regional infrastructure strengthens its partners and diversifies energy routes.
Greece, Cyprus and Israel at the center of the project
The Great Sea Interconnector is designed to establish a subsea electricity connection between Greece and Cyprus initially, with Israel included at a later stage.
The project is planned to have a total transmission capacity of 1,000 megawatts and span approximately 1,208 kilometers. The Greece-Cyprus section, running between Cyprus and Crete, is 898 kilometers long and has received €657 million in European Union funding through the Connecting Europe Facility.
The project’s promoters say the interconnector would end Cyprus’ isolation from the European electricity transmission network and provide an alternative route for electricity between Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.
The U.S. lawmakers emphasized the broader strategic implications.
“By linking the electricity grids of Greece, Cyprus and Israel, the GSI project will connect key U.S. partners across a strategically vital corridor,” they wrote.
They also said the project could strengthen Israel’s security of electricity supply while creating a platform for bidirectional power flows between Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Bipartisan U.S. support for Eastern Mediterranean strategy
Schneider and Bilirakis previously introduced the bipartisan Eastern Mediterranean Gateway Act, which seeks to elevate the region’s importance in U.S. foreign policy and strengthen cooperation with Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Egypt and other partners.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee advanced its version of the legislation in June.
The GSI letter was also signed by Reps. Jake Auchincloss, Dan Goldman, Craig Goldman and Haley Stevens, giving the initiative support from lawmakers in both parties.
The lawmakers concluded by urging the administration to prioritize the interconnector and requesting a classified briefing on the geopolitical obstacles to completing it.
The letter does not represent a new U.S. funding commitment for the project. Rather, it is a bipartisan congressional push for the Trump administration to give the Greece-Cyprus-Israel electricity link greater strategic attention.
Related: French Investment Gives New Momentum to Greece-Cyprus Power Link
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