Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty Before the U.S.-Egypt Strategic Dialogue

FOREIGN MINISTER ABDELATTY:  (Inaudible.)  Thank you so much, Tony, for being here.  It’s a great pleasure to have you here with your delegation.  You are always welcome here in Egypt.  I would like also to acknowledge and welcome the presence of the Egyptian delegation: His Excellency, the Minister of Higher Education; and His Excellency, the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities; His Excellency, the Minister of Education; and also dear colleagues from the different apparatus in Egypt from the different ministries.  We are here to welcome you and to engage in the initiation of this important Strategic Dialogue.

I believe that we have a very strong relationship.  And as the president announced in the morning, it’s a strategic relationship, and we are – care about it and we are convinced that you care about it.  We have to work more and more in order to further enhance our cooperation in everything.  The United States is a superpower, and Egypt is a super-regional power, so communications, consultations between us mostly on bilateral relations is of great importance to Egypt and to the United States.

Of course, we spoke today about the different areas of our cooperation in economic, tourism, education, security, defense, IT.  So this is the important – and the delegation, multidimensional delegation, relationship between our two great countries.  And we have a very strong spiritual basis and foundation, and we have to build on that to do more and to further enhance our cooperation.

Also, on the other hand, the two great countries, of course, we have this responsibilities to bring  peace and stability to our turbulent region.  So this Strategic Dialogue is of great importance for the two countries to consult and work together in order to bring about political solutions to very difficult and complicated conflicts and crisis in our neighborhood because we are sharing the same view that there is no military solution to the current crisis and the different problems.  We are working together with the Qataris in order to reach an immediate ceasefire within a deal which will secure the release of all the hostages and the prisoners from the Palestinian side, and also to allow important deliveries of humanitarian and medical aid to the people in Gaza and to (inaudible).

We spoke also of the crisis in Ethiopia, in Sudan.  We spoke and engaged about the urgency of having a ceasefire in Sudan, and of course the safe delivery and unconditional delivery of humanitarian aid in Sudan.  We also will talk about the Horn of Africa, of the importance of keeping stability in this region, and of course supporting the territorial integrity of Somalia, and of course respecting the sovereignties of – the sovereignty of all countries.  And finally, of course the issue of water, which is an existential issue for Egypt.

So we will continue our dialogue, and we have to do more and more to further deepening our friendship, our partnership.  And we value this partnership, and we believe that you value it, of course.  And it’s a win-win relationship based on mutual confidence and mutual respect of course, with no interference in the internal affairs of the different countries.

So again, Tony, a great pleasure to have you here.  Welcome here to Egypt and wish you a very pleasant stay for you and for your nice delegation, and back to you.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Badr, thank you so very much.  Thank you for the very warm hospitality.  Thank you for the very, very good meetings we’ve already had.  I especially want to thank President El-Sisi for what was a very, very, I think, productive and timely exchange.  But I’m very, very pleased to be here for this particular occasion, which is the next iteration of our Strategic Dialogue.  We’re building on the prior Strategic Dialogue that we held back in 2021.  But I think in so many ways, the timing and the importance of the dialogue could not be clearer and more important.

President Biden, Vice President Harris are committed to deepen and strengthen what is already a vitally important partnership for us, a strategic partnership between our two countries.  As you said, a long history, but I think the present demands that we do even more and do even better together because we face so many shared challenges, and when are countries are working closely together, we’re more effective in meeting those challenges.

It’s very good that today, as part of the Strategic Dialogue, we’re launching one of the working groups on education and culture.  We’ll be launching more working groups in the weeks ahead on regional issues, on security cooperation, on economic development, on assistance, and on human rights.  All of those will be meeting in the coming months.  I particularly want to thank the ministers who are here with us today as well as the ambassadors for all the work that they’re doing and that our colleagues are doing to really make these – make the Strategic Dialogue, make the working groups, make all this work, focus on delivering concrete results because that’s what we both want.

We’ve just had recently the meetings of the Joint Economic Commission, and we’ll soon have a meeting of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement group.  All of this shows that we’re working together to address urgent priorities, priorities that affect the lives of people in both of our countries.

And I’ll just say very quickly I know we have an opportunity to speak to the colleagues of the press later.  Just to emphasize again what a critical partner Egypt has been and remains for regional peace, regional stability, regional security, no more so than in the effort to get a ceasefire across the finish line.  And we’re really grateful for that partnership.  Egypt plays an essential, essential role.

I’d just say as well that we recognize so many of the challenges that Egypt faces.  The Red Sea, where what the Houthis are doing in targeting the maritime assets of so many countries, creating great difficulties in the Suez Canal, which has resulted in a lot of lost revenues for Egypt.  We know that burden.  We deeply appreciate what you’ve done in hosting so many who’ve had to flee Sudan because of the horrific conflict there, and the generosity that Egypt is showing.  The generosity of the Egyptian people is greatly appreciated.

But so, too, is the role that Egypt is playing in trying to bring the parties together so that we can get a ceasefire, get moving on the political track, and meanwhile to try to get some humanitarian assistance to people who so desperately need it.  In these and so many other areas, Egypt is playing a central role and has a lot of responsibility.

We will continue to work intensely on economic development, and I think that work today is more crucial than ever.  We’ve been working with the Egyptian people, the Egyptian Government to promote economic and trade relations, as I mentioned.  We’ll have more through the Strategic Dialogue.

In each of these endeavors, it does come back to what you said at the outset.  We’re partners.  We’re strategic partners.  And I think we see a mutual interest in deepening that partnership and making it as effective as it can be for the people that we have the privilege of representing.  So thank you, and good to be with all of you today.

FOREIGN MINISTER ABDELATTY:  Thank you so much, Tony, for your attention.  And if you allow me just gratefully to give the floor to the three ministers to join me in welcoming you and then to start our session.