Mubarak starts Asia tour today
In an important step which aims at deepening strategic understanding, economic and commercial cooperation between Egypt and key world countries, President Mubarak Wednesday1/11/2006 launches a European Asian tour that will take him to Russia, China and Kazakhstan. The tour will run for nine days.
"The tour will start with a two day visit to Russia during which President Mubarak will meet Russian President Vlademir Putin in the fourth summit between them since President Putin took over," said ambassador Suleiman Awwad, the Presidential Spokesman.
The two leaders will hold a world press conference at the end of their talks during which they will tackle ways of reactivating peace process, the situation in Palestinian territories, Iraq, Lebanon, Darfur, Iran's nuclear file, war on terrorism and expending economic and commercial cooperation between the two countries.
"The same issues would be discussed by President Mubarak during his visits to China and Kazakhstan, adding the tour aims at expanding joint cooperation with those countries which are linked to Egypt by a number of cooperation agreements in the field of scientific and technological research," ambassador Awwad told "Al-Ahram" newspaper.
He said President Mubarak would ask President Putin that Russia could use its efforts to have talks resumed between Israel and the Palestinians and to reactivate the quartet efforts in line with the roadmap.
He said President Mubarak will take part in the proceedings of the African Chinese Forum and will meet Chinese Prime Minister and Senior Chinese officials.
In Khasakhstan, President Mubarak's talks with President Nursultan Nazarbayev, will touch on bilateral relations and ways of expanding joint investments between the two countries.
President Mubarak Tuesday said his visit to China, due to start Friday, aims at giving strong momentum to Egyptian-Chinese relations in the field of trade, economic, investment, and transport and information technology domains.
For his part, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit reiterated on Tuesday31/10/2006 the importance of President Hosni Mubarak's tour that will take him to China, Russia and Kazakhstan.
Speaking to diplomatic editors, Abul Gheit said "what we hope for is to deepen Egypt's relations and strategic understanding with those countries. Egypt is capable of cooperating with China, which is an important military and economic force, he said, adding that Egypt could get all advantages of technology from China at good price less than other western countries. As for Russia, Abul Gheit said Russia has returned to playing an active role in the regional and international relations and Egypt believes in the importance of .opening up to this big force. "We should not forget that Egypt receives one million Russian tourists every year, a figure we hope can be doubled," he said. Low-cost manpower, science, knowledge and low-cost energy enable Egypt to receive foreign investments, he said. Whether there were any pressure on Egypt that would delay its peaceful nuclear plans, Abul Gheit said when Egypt takes the decision it will go ahead with it. But Egypt is still studying its potentials and when we take the decision, we will put it immediately in effect, he said.
