Holding Bilateral Meeting with Egyptian PM, Vice President Discusses Climate Change, Trade Cooperation, and Education

Sharm El-Sheikh, wapresri.go.id – Vice President KH Ma’ruf Amin held a bilateral meeting with Egyptian Prime Minister, Mostafa Kamal Madbouly, at the Pavilion of the Egyptian Prime Minister’s Office, Sharm El Sheikh International Convention Center (SHICC), Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Tuesday (08/11/2022).

At the meeting which lasted approximately 60 minutes, the two leaders discussed various issues related to climate change, cooperation in trade, and education.

To start the meeting, the Vice President expressed his appreciation for Egypt’s role in global efforts to address climate issues. He assessed that as developing countries, Egypt and Indonesia need to continue to encourage the realization of international commitments in overcoming this global issue, from all aspects.

“This includes funding, capacity building, and technology transfer from developed countries,” said the Vice President.

“Egypt’s leadership at COP27 and Indonesia’s at the G20 has become a momentum to deal with various crucial issues related to the economy and the environment,” he continued.

In the trade sector, the Vice President also explained that the cooperation between the two countries continues to improve. This can be seen from the increase in the trade value of more than 50 percent, reaching 1.86 billion US dollars.

Therefore, the Vice President considered, to further improve this good performance, the establishment of a Joint Trade Committee and the development of a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between the two countries could be followed up immediately.

“I ask for Your Excellency’s support so that the memorandum of understanding of the Joint Trade Committee can be signed immediately and the PTA establishment initiative can be discussed immediately,” said the Vice President.

While in the field of education, the Vice President expressed his gratitude for the provision of scholarships and facilities for Indonesian students who were currently studying in Egypt. In the future, he hoped that this good relationship in the field of education could continue to be strengthened and more Indonesian students could study in Egypt, and vice versa.

“Currently there are more than 10,300 Indonesian students in Egypt,” said the Vice President.

“I hope that the cooperation between the two countries can continue to be strengthened, including in protecting Indonesian students in Egypt,” he concluded.

Welcoming the various things conveyed by the Vice President, PM Kamal Madbouly said that Egypt would also continue to strive to improve bilateral relations with Indonesia that have existed for a long time, especially cooperation in the economic field.

“We also in this case would like to express our appreciation for the achievement of the signing of 2 MoUs during the visit of the Egyptian Foreign Minister to Indonesia last March, namely the MoU regarding the Establishment of a Joint Commission Session and Environmental Cooperation,” he said.

Furthermore, PM Kamal Madbouly also revealed that Egypt continued to strengthen cooperation in the field of education. In fact, according to him, the number of Indonesian students in Egypt was a blessing for the Egyptian government and society.

“We have Al-Azhar University which currently accommodates a lot of Indonesian students, the number of which reaches 11,000 and this is a source of happiness for us,” he said.

Accompanying the Egyptian PM at this bilateral meeting were Egyptian Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad, Cabinet Secretary-General Osama Saad, Cabinet Media Counselor Hany Younis, and Cabinet Spokesperson Nader Saad.

Meanwhile, the Vice President was accompanied by the Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya Bakar, and the Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia to Egypt Lutfi Rauf. (DMA/LHS- BPMI – Setwapres)