President El-Sisi’s Speech at the Joint Press Conference with Greek PM and Cypriot President

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful,

Your Excellency, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic,

Your Excellency, President Nicos Anastasiades, President of the Republic of Cyprus,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pleasure to be here today in the friendly Hellenic Republic, whose leadership I am very pleased to thank for the warm reception and hospitality, as well as the good management of the activities of the 9th Trilateral Summit of the Tripartite Cooperation Mechanism among Egypt, Greece, and Cyprus.

What the Tripartite Cooperation Mechanism has come to represent is no secret; a forum of crucial importance for the exchange of views on ways to achieve further development in the relationships of cooperation among our countries and peoples at the political, economic, cultural, military, and security levels, in light of consultations on various issues of common interest. This is achieved in a manner that contributes to coordinating efforts exerted by the three countries to face the great challenges witnessed by our immediate regional neighborhood or the international arena as a whole.

Perhaps the most recent example of such is the current positive cooperation amongst our countries to confront the Coronavirus pandemic, which represents an unprecedented threat to the health of our communities and to their efforts to achieve development and improve their standard of living.

Our commitment stems from working to implement, and even intensify, the projects emanating from the Tripartite Cooperation Mechanism in all fields, on top of which is the promising energy sector.

Here, I can only commend the qualitative development represented in today’s signing of a principal trilateral agreement in the field of electrical interconnectivity, in continuation of the two agreements concluded to connect the electrical grid in Egypt with Greece and Cyprus, at the bilateral level. This is a preliminary step that brings us closer to the common goal to which our three countries aspire, namely future electrical interconnection with the rest of the European continent.

Perhaps it is crucial that we all work to build on this momentum to realize parallel impetus with regard to the endeavor to build an offshore pipeline to transport natural gas from the Cypriot "Aphrodite" field to the two Egyptian liquefaction stations in Damietta and Idku. Paving the way for the eventual supply of liquefied gas from Egypt to Greece, these steps open the door for supplying Eastern Mediterranean countries, and perhaps also Western Balkans countries and Central Europe. This is consistent with the great ambitions that were born with the establishment of The Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum as a reliable entity for the proper planning of regional cooperation projects that maximize the benefit of member states of the forum and the peoples of the region in general, from the reserves of natural gas and hydrocarbon resources in the Mediterranean, consistent with the rules of international law and the sovereignty of states over their territories and resources.

Our meeting today presented an opportunity to discuss regional and international developments, specifically in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

We renew our support for the endeavors of the Republic of Cyprus and all relevant international parties to find a comprehensive and just solution to the Cypriot issue, based on the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council and international legitimacy.

We also discussed the situation and latest developments in Libya. We agreed on the importance of holding the elections in December 2021, according to the roadmap agreed upon by our Libyan brothers, as well as the inevitability of the withdrawal of all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya, in compliance with the relevant international resolutions that shall restore and safeguard Libya’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and reinforce the will of its people.

We also discussed the developments of the Palestinian issue, which remains at the root of conflict in the Middle East, in light of the escalation between the Palestinians and Israelis last May. It is the escalation that we were very keen to contain and halt, emanating from Egypt’s fate and historical responsibility to push for finding a just and comprehensive solution for this conflict based on the two- states solution. This is in addition enabling the Palestinian people to establish their independent state, along the 4th of June, 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

On the other hand, we also touched on the Syrian crisis. We renewed our support for the UN envoy to achieve a peaceful settlement based on the relevant UN Security Council’s resolutions. Our meeting today was a great opportunity to reiterate the consistency of our countries’ positions on the importance of preserving Syria’s territorial integrity and regional stability while rejecting the attempts by regional actors to impose facts on the ground by violating Syrian sovereignty and attempting to impose coercive demographic changes in some parts of the country.

We also emphasized the importance of countering the danger of terrorist organizations in order for the Syrian people to reclaim security and stability.

We also expressed the support of our three countries to Lebanon and our readiness to support all sincere efforts that would alleviate the suffering of the Lebanese society and to contribute to its stability and improve the economic conditions.

Furthermore, we tackled the dangers of terrorism and extremism, which result from the negative impact of the state of instability and chaos. These hamper the peoples’ efforts to keep up with the process of development and advancement and create transboundary crises, such as illegal immigration and affiliated activities like organized crime and human trafficking.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The meeting today with our Greek and Cypriot partners was an appropriate opportunity to reiterate the comprehensive perspective adopted by Egypt towards its approach with regard to the issue of human rights. This includes the importance of considering economic, social and cultural rights, while focusing on realizing a quantum leap in the human’s quality of life, empowering nations to provide an atmosphere of security and stability where citizens can practice their legal and constitutional rights, in addition to the importance of respecting cultural relativism.

These Egyptian beliefs were manifested in recently launching the national strategy for human rights to represent a national comprehensive approach and framework for the Egyptian State.

Your Excellency Prime Minister, Your Excellency the President,

At the end of my statement I can only sincerely thank you, my dear friends, for your honest commitment to fostering the friendship between our countries and societies and your keenness to launch this mechanism towards broader horizons. I assure you that Egypt looks forward to hosting the 10th round of the Tripartite Mechanism next year, God willing.

Thank You