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Joint press statements by the two Prime Ministers

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Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly: /…/ We discussed of course to increase our trade volume. I had the privilege to present to His Excellency the competitiveness of the Egyptian industry and agriculture, specifically in areas such as production of fertilizers and petrochemicals and others goods that Egypt really had the chance to export to Romania. On the contrary, we have been of course requesting from His Excellency to increase the grains imported from Romania, since Romania is one of the great producers of grains in Europe and the world and he said that this area is going to be one of the areas where we will seriously look on how to increase in this respect.

We are looking forward to the coming Joint Committee of economic, scientific, and technical matters, to be held in Bucharest this year, and of course, also, we are appraising the formulation and holding of the Joint Business Forum between the business communities in our two countries and really we are looking forward to both of them work together much more to increase the cooperation between our two countries, to make use, of course, of the continental agreements that both countries can enjoy allowing the other country to have access to it. For example, from the Egyptian side since we are part of the African Free Trade Agreement, we can secure access to Romanian companies through their partnership with the Egyptian one, to have access to African market. And also through such kind of partnerships, Egyptian firms can have more access to the European Union.

So, really, I am very pleased to see of course, the opportunities between our two countries, and again, I would like to welcome His Excellency, Prime Minister Ciucă for his historical visit to Cairo, and really we are looking forward for our joint cooperation to be strengthening and expanding in the coming period. Thank you.

Prime Minister Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă: Thank you very much. Your Excellency, Mr. Prime Minister, Your Excellencies ladies and gentlemen, I am really very honoured to pay this visit after so much time, 20 years. It’s a long time since we did not have bilateral cooperation at the Prime Minister level, but I am sure that since today, we will continue to work together and to keep a very coherent bilateral relationship, taking into account that we are having today very good discussions, I would say excellent discussions not only between us as Prime Ministers but also, between our Ministers who identified a lot of opportunities but also they touched upon the huge potential we have to develop our bilateral relationship.

Your Excellency, you already pointed out some of the figures which are proving the relevance of the relationships between our countries. So, beyond those numbers, 1.1 billion USD trade exchanges, we have to see what we can do more together taking into account this new context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine which is affecting not only the bordering countries, the countries in the proximity of Ukraine but also all the other countries. We have to see what we can do together in order to solve all these aspects which are really affecting our people, our economies and our countries. I am sure that continuing to discuss at the Ministerial level, at the technical level all these aspects and seeing what we can do more in support of ensuring the required quantity of grains and also the required quantity by Romania in regard of fertilizers, as you mentioned, also doing our best together to avoid the food crisis and to see how we can do more in order to support the Ukrainian grain exports, in order not to let the other countries be affected by these grain shortages, and also to see how we can play our pivotal role: Romania in the Black Sea region, Egypt in the Middle East and Africa region. You agreed that we have to do our best to host the Joint Committee, and I am promising you that as soon as possible to have the technical staff identifying the period, the date, and we will host it in Bucharest. We will do our best to see how we can better connect the European Union with Egypt and you will do your best to see how you can connect all of us with the Middle East and African countries through the African continent’s free trade area, which is really a very important opportunity.

Of course, there is a lot of potential we have discussed, how we can support each other in developing the green energy capabilities, developing the green hydrogen capabilities, and also to see how we can support each other in implementing the digitalization in the government and the administration institutions. So, taking into account that there is already bilateral relationship established by our national leaders, the only thing we have to do now is to do our best to implement all those decisions. You have our commitment that we will continue to work together and to see what we have to stress, what we‘ll have to focus on in order to develop, to strengthen and enhance our bilateral relationship. Once again, thank you very much for your hospitality, thank you very much for the opportunity to have this visit, and of course I am inviting you to pay a visit to Bucharest and to see what we have done in reality after our meetings. Thank you very much, Your Excellency.