“I am very happy to welcome you, Minister [for Foreign Affairs of Egypt, Sameh] Shoukry here in Brussels. Tomorrow is the 20^th anniversary of the entry into force of the European Union-Egypt Association Agreement.

I very much appreciate your views, your readiness to discuss frankly and openly, and our overall cooperation and friendship, dear Sameh.

We already exchanged views yesterday, at the Foreign Affairs Council, about the situation in Gaza.

We appreciate the crucial role played by Egypt in ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid to the people in Gaza, in providing healthcare to medical evacuees, in negotiating the humanitarian pause and the release of hostages in November. This was an important topic.

But today, [we are] focusing on our [EU-Egypt Association] Council – which is, first of all, about our bilateral relations and the highest political platform of our Association following a comprehensive discussion and review of our relations and cooperation. We have made significant progress, and we reviewed this progress over the last 20 years and I am glad that our cooperation has gained intensity and quality.

Two years ago, we endorsed new and ambitious Partnership Priorities which define the framework for our relations to move forward.

And today, we have signed the Framework Agreement allowing Egypt to negotiate its participation to our programmes – to EU programmes – open to third countries, like for example, Horizon Europe.

This is a big step. This is a step that will allow us to untap the enormous potential in our relations. And we want to intensify cooperation on a wide range of topics.

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