Minister of International Cooperation, Dr. Rania Al-Mashat, held a meeting with a high-level Ukrainian delegation headed by Ihor Zhovkva, Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office for International Relations in the presence of Evhen Mikitenko, Ambassador of Ukraine in Cairo to outline a new path for 2021/22 cooperation.
The minister underscored the strategic relationship between Egypt and Ukraine, and Egypt's keenness to strengthen economic relations through economic diplomacy to maintain and strengthen a development cooperation framework that aligns with national priorities and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Al Mashat referred to the Ministry of International Cooperation’s principles of economic diplomacy to strengthen the ‘Global Partnerships for Effective Development’. These principles include regularly organizing multi-stakeholder platforms to ensure that all projects between development partners are streamlined and effectively coordinated to accelerate the pace of development for the achievement of UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); adopting a consistent Global Partnerships Narrative People&Projects&Purpose (P&P&P); and mapping ODA financing to SDGs for all projects with multilateral and bilateral development partners. The meeting discussed holding the eighth session of the Egyptian-Ukrainian Joint Committee for Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation in Cairo during the first quarter of 2021, which will include cooperation in the fields of investment, trade, artificial intelligence, manufacturing, entrepreneurship, river port development system, infrastructure, agriculture, sustainable management of water and health. It is worth noting that the volume of Egyptian-Ukrainian trade exchange reached 2.6 billion US dollars during the year 2019, meaning that Egypt remains the largest trading partner of Ukraine in Africa and the Middle East. On 26 September, Dr. Rania Al-Mashat met with Mr. Evhen Mikitenko, Ambassador of the Republic of Ukraine in Cairo, to discuss convening of the Egyptian-Ukrainian Joint Committee and to enhance future areas of cooperation between the two countries, as the seventh session of the Egyptian-Ukrainian Joint Committee was held during 2018. The joint Egyptian-Ukrainian committee seeks to create the necessary legal framework for the advancement of bilateral cooperation relations between Egypt and Ukraine, in addition to facilitating trade exchange and fostering stronger relations between the private sector of the two countries.