ASMARA – Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri met with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki during his visit to Asmara, where he delivered a message from President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, said Foreign Ministry’s spokesman, Ambassador Ahmed Abu Zeid.
The president’s message focused on overall bilateral relations between the two countries, and ways to develop them in all fields, Abu Zeid said in a statement on Friday.
According to the statement, Minister Shoukri conveyed the president’s greetings to Afwerki, stressing Cairo’s keenness to strengthen ties with Eritrea in a way that achieves the interests of the two brotherly peoples.
For his part, President Afwerki said his country looks forward to continuing cooperation with Egypt to enhance partnership at the bilateral level, and intensifying consultation and coordination mechanisms to face common challenges.
The Foreign Ministry’s spokesman said the two sides discussed a number of joint cooperation projects and programs in infrastructure, health, training and transfer of expertise, in addition to topics related to the African continent and developments in the Horn of Africa.
“Foreign Minister [Shoukri] stressed Egypt’s keenness to support stability, security and peace in the region, which requires strengthening the mechanisms of regional cooperation and coordination from a comprehensive perspective,” Abu Zeid said, noting that talks also highlighted present challenges going on in Somalia and Sudan, and their impact on the stability and territorial integrity of the countries of the region were addressed.
Abu Zeid said Shoukri’s meeting with the Eritrean president touched on the challenges related to the security of the Red Sea, pointing out that Cairo has stressed the importance of boosting cooperation between the countries bordering the Red Sea to ensure the safety of maritime navigation in this strategic international trade route.
Abu Zeid said that Shoukri reiterated that “Egypt warned more than once” against the dangers of the expansion of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, citing the extension of the crisis without reaching a ceasefire.
