President to meet with Arab League on last day in Egypt

President Nikos Christodoulides will meet with the Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit in Egypt on Thursday.

After the meeting Christodoulides will depart for Cyprus.

On Wednesday Christodoulides had a meeting at the presidential palace, in Cairo, with the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and expressed his will for boosting the cooperation between Cyprus and Egypt.

The two presidents also attended expanded talks of the two countries’ delegations.

In statements on the energy cooperation between Cyprus and Egypt, President Christodoulides described the establishment of the East Mediterranean Gas Forum as a milestone.

He added that Cyprus will continue to work to upgrade cooperation in the framework of this forum.

The president added that they agreed to have the next Cyprus-Egypt intergovernmental conference next September in Nicosia, noting that Egypt is the first country with which Cyprus started to have such a cooperation.

“We also look forward to our next common meeting with Greece, while we also exchanged views for the further expansion of these schemes, always on an ad hoc basis with other countries of the region,” he added.

Christodoulides briefed Sisi on developments on the Cyprus issue, thanking him on the long-standing stance of Egypt in the framework of the Islamic Conference Organisation.

On his part, Sisi said that the two countries enjoy relations of strategic importance and cooperation, while he referred to the substantial reinforcement of the bilateral relations during Nicos Anastasiades’ governance.

He added that they discussed energy issues and the transfer of Cypriot natural gas to LNGs in Egypt, as well as the issue of the electric interconnection and green energy.

Sisi noted that Egypt looks forward to cooperation with Cyprus in development and productive sectors.

He stressed the need for countries to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries in the framework of the international law, noting that as regards the Cyprus problem Egypt supports Cyprus and always tries to contribute to the settlement of the problem on the basis of the UN Security Council resolutions.

President Christodoulides is accompanied to Egypt by Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, Energy Minister George Papanastasiou, Government Spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis, Deputy Director of the President’s diplomatic office Doros Venezis, and other officers.

Kombos and Papanastasiou had separate meetings with their Egyptian counterparts, on the side-lines of Christodoulides’ meeting with Sisi.

During the talks the two countries expressed their will for jointly supporting the inclusion of the project for their electric interconnection in the list of projects of common interest of the EU.

Moreover, it was agreed to set up a Business Council with a view to enhance the relations between the two countries’ businesspeople.