As the final preparations for the May 8 trilateral summit between the heads of state of Cyprus, Israel, and Greece were being laid out—the fourth such summit in just over two years, with so far, more words than actions—news broke that Cyprus and Israel might resort to international arbitration to resolve a dispute over Aphrodite, a gas field located in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), with a tip extending into the Israeli EEZ. In December 2010, Cyprus and Israel signed an agreement delimiting their maritime border. It was supposed to be followed up by a unitization agreement providing a framework for cooperation in the exploitation of cross-border natural gas and oil reservoirs, but the two sides have yet to agree to such a deal. A year later, toward the end of 2011, Texas-based Noble Energy announced the discovery of Aphrodite in Block 12 off the Cypriot coast. When it
