PM announces high-level cooperation council with Egypt
Greece and Egypt have agreed to establish a high-level cooperation council comprising several members of Cabinet, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday during a visit to the North African country, where he met with President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.
“We’re hoping that the first such council may take place in our country, in the first few months of 2024, where we will invest in this relationship even further, to the mutual benefit of Greece and Egypt and our two peoples,” Mitsotakis said after a visit to a memorial for the Greek soldiers who died in the historic battle of El Alamein in World War II.
Asked to comment on where relations with Egypt stand in the broader context of the Eastern Mediterranean at a time when Ankara is also seeking a rapprochement with Cairo, the Greek prime minister said ties are “autonomous and strong.”
“They are not defined by, nor dependent on, any relationships we may have with other countries in the Eastern Mediterranean,” he said in comments to state broadcaster ERT, describing a “strategic partnership” that “still has much to demonstrate in various fields.”
The meeting with Sisi was “short but productive,” Mitsotakis said, adding that the talks also addressed “new prospects for cooperation, with a particular focus on energy issues.”
“The interconnection between Greece and Egypt through an electricity cable project seems to be receiving support from the European Union as well,” he said.
