LONDON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday met Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who was visiting Washington to mark the centennial of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
“There is a lot of history but, I hope, a lot of good history we can actually make together in the months and years ahead,” Blinken said during a joint press conference before their meeting.
The two men reviewed various aspects of bilateral and strategic relations, discussed a number of international and regional issues, and affirmed the importance of continued consultations and joint coordination, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said.
Blinken said he last sat down with Shoukry a few weeks ago in Israel’s Negev region during a meeting with their counterparts from Israel, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco.
The gathering was, Blinken said, “a picture that would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago, except that, actually, Egypt would have imagined it. Because Egypt was, many, many years ago, the ground-breaker in establishing its relationship with Israel and, in so many ways since then, has been at the heart of stability in the region, working for peace, working for security, and doing so in strategic partnership with the United States, something that we deeply value and deeply appreciate.”
Shoukry said that the strategic partnership that has existed between Egypt and the US for more than four decades “has been mutually beneficial and I believe there is much more work for both of us to do to further strengthen the relationship, and also to deal with the various challenges that I believe we can only meet through the continuing of our cooperation and our interaction.”
He added that one of the aims of his visit to Washington is to highlight the importance that Egypt attaches “to the multifaceted and very deep relationship” it has with the US, and his country is committed to working on strengthening the relationship and finding new areas of cooperation.
Following the meeting, the US State Department said the two sides discussed regional stability and security cooperation, the next steps to build off the successful Negev Ministerial.
Ahmed Hafez, a spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, said that while in Washington, Shoukry and the US envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, met for talks on the current situation in the Middle East.
Shoukry also met representatives of the US Chamber of Commerce, Hafez said, to discuss economic and trade relations between the two countries, the comprehensive development boom Egypt is experiencing, and the participation of American businesses in sustainable development efforts in Egypt, especially in the clean and renewable energy sectors. They also talked about COP27, the UN Climate Change Conference that is scheduled to take place in Sharm El-Sheikh in November, and the importance of the role of the private sector in addressing challenges associated with climate change.
