Russian-Egyptian talks continued on Saturday in Cairo. Today Mr. Lavrov had a meeting with his counterpart Ahmed Aboul Gheit. It is worth noting that Mr. Lavrov and Aboul Gheit know each other for a long time when they used to occupy the posts of the permanent representatives of their countries in the UN, and thus their meeting can be seen as a meeting of old friends.
The friendly atmosphere of the talks was also strengthened by the fact that Moscow's and Cairo's positions on the most international and regional issues coincide. It was proved at the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in May this year in Moscow. Russia highly evaluates this fact and intends to continue the development of the mechanism of coordination of topical international issues. Egypt has the same intention. In May at the meeting of the Presidents Mr. Mubarak proposed to increase the level of trust between the two countries and to activate the exchange of visits at a high level. On Saturday at the talks in Cairo the both sides signed a Memorandum on the strategic partnership between the Russian and the Egyptian Foreign Ministries. All this is necessary for the development of bilateral cooperation, especially in the trade and economic sphere.
As diplomatic sources told RIA Novosti, a meeting of the new co-chairmen of the Russian-Egyptian intergovernmental commission (IGC) on the trade-economic and scientific-technical cooperation is scheduled to be held at the end of September in Cairo. The Russian part will be presented by Head of the Industry Agency Boris Aleshin and the Egyptian part - by Minister of Foreign Trade and Industry Rashid Mohamed Rashid. In September the co-chairmen will discuss the preparations for the fifth session of the intergovernmental commission as well as for the visit of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov to Cairo before the end of the current year. According to the diplomatic sources, since Mr. Alyoshin and Mr. Rashid are both responsible for industries, obviously the main emphasis will be laid on the industrial cooperation, particularly on the technical re-equipment of the 98 objects in Egypt, which were built there with the help of the Soviet Union. Moreover, either in the course of Mr. Fradkov's visit or in the course of the intergovernmental commission's session four interdepartmental agreements are planned to be signed: on cooperation between the agricultural ministries in the spheres of the phytosanitary and veterinary control, between the health ministries in the pharmaceutical sphere, as well as the agreement on the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purpose.
Moreover, the development of the Russian-Egyptian cooperation in the scientific-technical sphere, especially in the sphere of information technologies, is also being widely discussed. All this will enable to increase the trade turnover between the two countries, which Mr. Putin and Mr. Mubarak spoke about at the May meeting in Moscow. In 2003 Russian export was estimated at $377.4 mln, while the import at $38.6 mln. These figures doesn't include the cooperation in the military-technical sphere as well as the finances, which Egypt gains from Russian tourists. In 2003 some 500,000 Russian tourists visited Egypt and this year the figure can increase up to 700,000. Currently, Russia is on the third place following France and Italy in number of tourists visiting Egypt.
Certainly during the talks with Mr. Mubarak and Aboul Gheit Mr. Lavrov discussed the situation in the Middle East, which worries both parties in connection with the continuing crisis in Iraq and absence of the progress in the Arabian-Israeli settlement. The Egyptian party supported the Russian proposal concerning the holding of international conference on Iraq. The parties also stressed the necessity to continue efforts of the Middle East quartet, which includes Russia, the U.S., EU and UN, expedient for the Palestinian-Israeli settlement.
