Director of Departmnet of African Organizations and Communities at the Egyptian Foreign Ministry Ambassador Ashraf Swelam conferred on Thursday with Russian Ambassador in Cairo Georgiy Borisenko and other Russian diplomats on preparations of the Russia-Africa Summit, due to be held in Saint Petersboroug City in July, 2023.
In a statement released on Thursday 2/2/2023, the Russian diplomat said that Moscow is looking forward to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s participation in the summit, noting that Egypt is a gate for Africa and a pioneering state in the continent.
He also praised the outcome of the first Russia-Africa Summit held in the Russian city of Sochi in 2019, noting that Egypt has been playing a pivotal and effective role in launching the first edition of the summit under the co-chairmanship of Sisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
Meanwhile, Ambassador Swelam said the meeting covered exchanging viewpoints on a set of issues pertaining to Africa as well as a galaxy of international issues on the future of multilateral cooperation, reform of the UN Security Council, expansion of the Group of 20 to include more African states, among other issues of common interest.
Wazir also tackled Egypt’s efforts to fund VICMED and the fund of its feasibility studies with dlrs 500,000 along with coordination with the African Development Bank (AfDB) to fund the first phase of the studies with dlrs 650,000, noting that an agreement is soon about to be finalized between Egypt and AfDB to provide dlrs 2 million to fund the second phase of the feasibility studies of the project.
He also said the mega projects which have been carried out in Egypt since 2014 and the specialized companies which have overseen the implementation are fully ready to help the African brethren in implement all infrastructure projects under the supervision of the Egyptian consultative offices.
The session was attended by Uganda finance minister, Djibouti minister of economy and finance, Comoros minister of infrastructure as well as a galaxy of African ministers and officials.
Source: State Information Service Egypt