The minister firstly congratulated Mr. Christian Berger for who his new post as ambassador of the European Union in Cairo, in the presence of Ambassador Raouf Saad, Head of the National Office for the Implementation of the Egyptian-European Partnership Agreement, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Al Mashat noted that the strategic relations between Egypt and the European Union reflected positively on Egypt’s development. Al Mashat added that Egypt is currently part of the support framework for European Union for the period 2017-2020, which has allocated 432-528 million euros to support several sectors, including sustainable energy, environment, social protection, stability promotion, governance, capacity building and civil society. Turning development into real success human stories, the minister referred to Egypt's stories especially in regards to women's empowerment, as the Ministry of International Cooperation and the National Council for Women, in cooperation with the World Economic Forum, launched the first of its kind in the Middle East and Africa the ‘Gender Gap Accelerator’ to close the gender gap through public-private collaboration, as well as her recent visit to Sinai to inspect a group of community developmental projects to provide inspiring living conditions for Bedouins. Al Mashat reiterated the ministry’s vision to apply the three principles of economic diplomacy, which includes regularly organizing multi-stakeholder platforms, adopting a consistent Global Partnerships Narrative People&Projects&Purpose (P&P&P); and mapping ODA financing to SDGs. The first principle is implemented through the ‘Global Partnerships for Effective Development’ multi-stakeholder platform, which aims to ensure open dialogue between partners and turn development projects into success stories that can be later used as prototypes, as well as identify challenges and priorities in development. The second principle is the narrative based on the three P&P&P: people at the core to improve the lives of Egyptians, projects in action across several sectors and purpose as the driver to achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. For his part, Mr. Christian Berger welcomed the role played by the Ministry of International Cooperation to coordinate efforts between governments and international institutions through the multi-stakeholder platform, stressing the EU’s keenness to support Egypt’s development efforts. The new framework agreement for cooperation was concluded to begin negotiations during the years 2021-2027, which will add to Egypt’s long historical relations with the European Union that began since 1977 and amounts to 1.35 billion euros grants.