FM highlights Egypt's strong historical ties with Austria

Egypt Independent

16 hours ago

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates Badr Abdelatty highlighted on Saturday 28/6/2025 the profound historical relationship between Egypt and Austria.
Abdelatty made his remarks during a press conference he held with his visiting Austrian counterpart Beate Meinl-Reisinger, following an official session of talks.
The top diplomat stated that their discussions covered the close relations between Egypt and Austria, most particularly in the political, economic, trade, and educational fields.
He noted that their talks reflected a shared vision for advancing cooperation to broader horizons, adding that both sides emphasized the importance of building on the current momentum in bilateral relations.
Meanwhile, he announced that they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a mechanism for political consultations, reflecting the two countries' mutual desire to enhance cooperation.
He also mentioned that discussions tackled ways to boost economic and investment cooperation, praising the support of Austrian companies operating in Egypt and their role in boosting the country's development efforts.
Abdelatty said an MoU signed between Egypt and Austria to launch a political consultation mechanism affirms a mutual willingness to strengthen cooperation in the economic, trade and investment sectors, as well as collaboration for combating illegal migration and terrorism.
He noted that the number of Austrian companies in Egypt has tripled over the past five years, to reach 500 operating in various fields, hailing their extensive expertise, especially in the new and renewable energy, chemical and food industries, desalination and water recycling, as well as the transportation and logistics sectors.
Asserting the importance of cooperation for combating terrorism and extremist ideologies, Abdelatty expressed Egypt's readiness to share its leading experience in this regard.
As for illegal migration, Abdelatty underscored the need to adopt a holistic approach to addressing the root causes of the problem, by focusing on job creation and taking into account its socio-economic dimensions.
During the news briefing with his Austrian counterpart Beate Meinl-Reisinger, following their official talks today, Abdelatty said that Egypt and Austria are about to sign 10 agreements covering various cooperation areas, noting that bilateral talks also covered cooperation for exporting skilled workforce to Austria.
The talks also highlighted the importance of contributing to the State's plan for building the Egyptian citizen and enhancing the skills of the Egyptian youth, as per European standards, he said.
The regional situation and the Palestinian issue figured high during discussions, Abdelatty said, stressing the importance of exerting maximum pressure to reach an immediate ceasefire and detainee-release agreement, and stop Israeli attacks on innocent people, whether in the West Bank or Gaza.
The meeting also covered the recent escalation in the region as regards the Iranian nuclear file, Abdelatty said, adding that Israel's attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities were condemned during the talks.
Abdelatty emphasized the importance of sustaining the current ceasefire between Iran and Israel, calling for urgent efforts to resume nuclear talks between Iran and the US.