Egypt

QNA reports that Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister for African Affairs Ambassador Mona Omar has welcomed the mediation of the State of Qatar to settle the dispute between Eritrea and Djibouti, adding that Egypt welcomes any mediation that will realize peace between the two coutries.

She announced that her country was ready to make any effort to help achieve peace in this vital and important region, stressing that the return of normalcy between Eritrea and Djibouti is of interest to Egypt.

On the other hand, the Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister revealed in a press statement released today that Chadian President Idriss Deby will begin a two-day visit to Cairo tomorrow (Tuesday) where he will hold talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and a number of officials on bilateral relations in addition to the latest developments in Sudan, especially in the Darfur region among others.

She also that Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed is expected to pay a visit to Egypt during the coming period, during which he is expected to hold talks with Egyptian officials on the situation in Somalia and the Horn of Africa.

An Egyptian-Eritrean summit was held in Sharm el-Sheikh Tuesday May 4, 2010 between President Hosni Mubarak and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, according to ESIS.

During the summit, the two leaders discussed a number of regional and international issues of common interest topped by relations between Egypt and the Nile Basin states based on mutual understanding and joint keenness to achieve balanced development in all Nile Basin states.

The summit tackled the results of the underway consultations with all Nile basin states in the light of messages which have been addressed by President Mubarak to the leaders of those countries in the wake of the ministerial meeting of the Nile Basin states which was held in Sharm el-Sheikh last month.

Talks between the two leaders focused on the situation in the horn of Africa and efforts to combat piracy in Somalia.

Furthermore, Mubarak and Afewrki reviewed ways of boosting bilateral relations in the political, economic and social fields, expanding trade and investment exchange as well as encouraging the establishment of joint projects for enhancing development plans.

The Eritrean President arrived in Sharm el-Sheikh on a three-day visit and was welcomed at the airport by Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit, Minister Omar Suleiman, South Sinai Governor Mohamed Abdel-Fadil Shousha and the Eritrean Ambassador in Cairo.

Following the summit talks, the Eritrean President left Sharm el-Sheikh for Cairo for talks with Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif on expanding the scope of cooperation, the exchange of expertise and developing relations in the various domains.

Asmara, (Shabait) 3 May 2010- President Isaias Afwerki left today for Qatar and Egypt on a working visit at the invitation of Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Emir of Qatar, and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.

In the course of the visit, the President would hold talks with the leaders of the two countries on enhancing bilateral relations and regional, as well as international issues of mutual interest.

President Isaias was accorded warm welcome on arrival in Doha at noon.

Later on, he met and held talks with the Crown Prince Sheikh Temim Bin-Hamad Al-Thani and other senior Qatari government officials.

In the meeting, the President exchanged views on Eritrean-Qatari relations, economic cooperation based on partnership and regional as well as international issues of mutual interest.

CAIRO, (The National), Mad Bradley – Despite a lack of agreement from Egypt and Sudan, seven of the nine countries that share the Nile River basin will proceed with plans to create a permanent negotiating body for determining the equitable use of the world’s longest river, African water ministers have said.

Water and irrigation ministers from seven up-river African nations said they hope to finalise negotiations on the Co-operative Framework Agreement next month, with or without agreement from down-river nations Egypt and Sudan.

The plans follow failed negotiations last week in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, between the nine countries of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI), a World Bank-funded programme that seeks to establish a diplomatic protocol for evaluating the fair use of the river for agricultural and energy projects.

The impasse between up-river and down-river countries has led to more than a decade of delays in forming the framework agreement, which supporters say could become an example of international co-operation for the fair use of water resources in the impoverished and conflict-prone region of north-eastern Africa.

A spokesman for the Ethiopian government accused Egypt on Tuesday of “delaying” negotiations, according to the Bloomberg news agency.

But Egypt, which is where the river flows into the Mediterranean, and Sudan say such an agreement could threaten their “historical rights” to secure sources of water. Their position downstream renders them particularly vulnerable to changes in water availability caused by up-river development projects, they said.

Egyptian water officials said if up-river nations exclude them from the agreement, it could spell the end of negotiations on equitable water-sharing for the entire river basin.

“Egypt’s share of the Nile’s water is a historic right that Egypt has defended throughout its history,” said Mohammed Allam, Egypt’s minister of water resources and irrigation, to a parliamentary session on Monday, according to Agence France-Presse. “If the Nile basin countries unilaterally signed the agreement it would be considered the announcement of the Nile Basin Initiative’s death.”

Egypt and Sudan’s historical claims to the Nile’s water stem from two past treaties that did not include signatures from the other Nile basin states. The latest treaty, which was signed between Egypt and Sudan in 1959, gave the Egyptian government rights over 55.5 billion cubic metres of water annually out of the 84 billion cubic metres that reach Egypt’s High Aswan Dam each year.

Although all of the countries have agreed on most of the terms of the framework, Egypt and Sudan have insisted that the agreement should include guarantees of the “historical rights” to which upper riparian states were never a party.

“We are not party to that agreement and we don’t recognise it,” said Teferra Beyene, the head of trans-boundary river affairs for Ethiopia’s ministry of water resources, of the 1959 treaty between Egypt and Sudan. “We don’t know of such a thing called historical rights. After all this is going to be a new covenant, a new agreement among the riparian countries.”

Egyptian diplomats urged negotiators to proceed directly towards the formation of a Nile River Basin Commission instead of first negotiating the terms of the framework agreement. The commission would act as a deliberative body and would make its decisions by a consensus of all the riparian states.

Egyptian officials say that unlike upper riparian states such as Ethiopia, whose rainy highlands provide an estimated 85 per cent of the Nile’s waters, projects on the Egyptian section of the river have no impact on countries further downstream.

“Our Egyptian water comes from the geography of the river and they can’t control that,” said Abd el Ati el Shafei, the chairman of the Nile Guards and Environment Protection Association.

Mr el Shafei said the Nile water that reaches Egypt only constitutes around five per cent of the Nile River’s total reserves of 1,600 billion cubic metres. And with its large and growing population that dwarfs those of other Nile Basin states, with the exception of Ethiopia, Egypt’s need for water security is particularly acute. “They don’t need the water that runs into Egypt and we didn’t take it from them by force,” Mr el Shafei said.

But as the countries of the Nile basin bicker over who is responsible for the stalled negotiations, the impasse continues to delay the creation of a permanent body that might arbitrate such disputes. Hani Raslan, the director of the Sudan and Nile basin studies programme at the semi-official Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo, said he does not expect any serious decisions on a co-operative agreement within the next 20 years.

“These countries are small and fragile, they have many crises, and they act with Egypt like maybe they think they are superpowers,” Mr Raslan said. “That is not real. Egypt must have the right to do anything to protect its people.”

By Patrick Werr

CAIRO, Reuters- An Egyptian and a Sudanese company signed an agreement on Tuesday to build a key section of the Cape-to-Cairo highway, an Egyptian official said.

The road has been a dream since the late 19th century, when British officials planned a road to connect their colonies in Africa. Under the agreement, a 400-km (250-mile) stretch of highway will be built between Aswan in Egypt and Dongola in Sudan at a cost of $500 million, Osama Saleh, chairman of the General Authority for Investment, told reporters.

This is the last section to be built between Khartoum and Cairo, although major gaps remain unfinished in East Africa.

“The project aims to connect Egypt’s Alexandria and Cape Town in South Africa,” Saleh said.

Egypt’s state Holding Co. for Building and Construction and Sudan’s privately owned Zawaya Group for Development and Investment signed the memorandum of understanding.

Eritrean Ministry of Information reports that a high-level Eritrean government delegation headed by Foreign Minister Osman Saleh participated at the 4th China-Africa Partnership Conference held in the Egyptian city of Sharm Al-Sheik from November 6 to 9.

More than 19 Heads of State and ministers from 49 African countries attended the conference that focused on enhancing the exiting relations and cooperation of partnership between Africa and the PRC.

In a statement they gave, the ministers of foreign affairs, trade and industry of the African countries and China underlined the significance of enhancing strategic partnership in meeting the current global crisis, especially the negative impact of the prevailing economic and financial meltdown, food shortage and climatic change.

An understanding has also been reached to hold the 5th China-Africa Conference in Beijing in 2012.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Osman Saleh conducted discussion with his Egyptian counterpart, Mr.Ahmed Aboul Gheit, on bilateral relations and developments in the Horn of Africa. Source: (Shabait)

Austal High Speed Boat

The Government of Egypt’s two Austal-built high speed vehicle ferries have officially commenced operations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, introducing a new standard of ferry service across the Red Sea.

The important milestone was achieved on the back of Austal’s recent award of a technical management and maintenance contract for the two catamaran ferries.

Each 88-metre vessel now performs six return trips per week, operating on 100 nautical mile route between Dibba in Saudi Arabia and Safaga in Egypt.

The service has already proven popular with Pilgrims travelling on to Mecca, Egyptian workers travelling to and from Saudi Arabia as well as business and leisure travellers. So far more than 69700 people have utilised the service, which has also facilitated the transport of 3514 vehicles and 730 trucks.

Integral to the successful launch of the new service, Austal’s comprehensive technical management and maintenance package is being undertaken over a three-year period and includes options for an additional two years.

The package will see Austal perform planned and preventative maintenance support, unscheduled maintenance, management and performance of annual surveys and maintenance periods as well as shorebased engineering support.

As a result, Austal has established a dedicated, fully staffed service office in the Egyptian port city of Safaga, where it will utilise the region’s existing maintenance docking facilities where required.

Along with building on the company’s extensive experience in the Middle East region, Austal General Manager – Service, Michael McCourt, said the project demonstrated Austal’s growing technical management and maintenance capability.

‘Austal continues to grow its global Through Life Support (TLS) capability, which now includes countries such as Oman, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela,’ Mr McCourt said.

‘As this contract has already shown, Austal is committed to ensuring client vessels are fully maintained and available for operation in accordance with the vessels’ planned operational profile. We are pleased to be involved in establishing and maintaining this important public transportation service in the Middle East,’ he said.

Mr McCourt said Austal can tailor service packages to suit individual requirements by drawing on more than 20-years experience in aluminium vessel design and construction.

‘Having delivered more than 200 vessels to both commercial and defence customers worldwide, including 16 to the Middle East, we understand what is required to maximise the operational availability of every fleet,’ he said.

The two 88-metre ferries ‘Cairo’ and ‘Riyadh’ were originally delivered to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in December 2008 and later gifted to the Egyptian Government to improve the standard of ferry services across the Red Sea.

Each vessel has the capacity to carry 1200 passengers, 120 cars and 15 trucks at an operating speed of 37 knots. Source: (AMEINFO)

Nile

Egypt State Information Service (SIS) is reporting that Egypt is denying reports that Eritrea diverted one of the Nile tributaries away from Egypt and Sudan.

Dr. Mohamed Nasr Eddin Allam, Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation said reports are not true on Eritrea’s diversion of one of the tributaries of River Atbara which is nourishing the River Nile away from Egypt and Sudan.

He added that Eritrea’s technical capabilities are limited in this field and its contribution to the water resources of the Nile Basin is rather weak.

Allam said Egypt has approved last week the establishment of a number of dams in Ethiopia and some Nile Basin countries to cultivate 20,000 feddans by those countries.  He affirmed that Egypt does not object the establishment of small dams by those countries, contrary to some parties’ allegations that Egypt is against development process in Nile Basin countries.

Egypt had approved the establishment of Tikrizi dam in Ethiopia since the year 2005 as the Ethiopian government presented the detailed feasibility studies on the dam to Egypt and Egypt approved as it is to be built for only power generation and would not affect Egypt’s quota of Nile water, he added.

The projects of building dams for power generation would also benefit not only Ethiopia but also the down stream countries, Egypt and Sudan.

On the other hand, Allam said the satellite survey of the Nile Basin by the Ministry for the Nile Basin countries indicated that the establishment on the Nile establishments including the small dams would not affect Egypt’s water Quota.

The two largest such establishments is Marwa dam of Sudan which stores 12 billion cubic meters a year and that is within the limit of Sudan’s water quota according to 1959 agreement between Egypt and Sudan.

The second establishment is that of Tikrizi dam in Ethiopia which stores nine billion cubic meters of water a year and it is used for power generation. Allam added that he made a report to the political leadership in this respect.

Relations between Egypt and Ethiopia at the best and there are cooperation by the two countries in the water question through the Nile Basin countries, the Minister added.

Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia the eastern Nile Basin countries are conducting studies to carry out a number of power generation projects and power linkage, for the good of the three countries, the Minister added.

NAM

(Reuters) – Leaders from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), a group of 118 countries, said the world needs a financial system that is fairer to developing states which have suffered most in a crisis caused by rich countries.

The presidents of Cuba, Egypt and others were addressing a NAM summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The summit on Wednesday and Thursday is the 15th held by NAM, a grouping that has struggled to stay relevant after it was founded during the Cold War by countries which did not want to be aligned either with the Soviet Union or the United States.

Below an extract from Reuters about the background of NAM:

ORIGIN OF NAM:

* The Bandung Asian-African Conference in April 1955 was instrumental in founding the Non-Aligned Movement. That meeting gathered delegates from 29 countries, many newly independent from their colonial rulers.

FOUNDING NAM SUMMIT:

* The NAM was formally set up in 1961 in Belgrade by developing countries that chose not to align with the United States or Soviet Union to avoid becoming caught up in Cold War politics. Twenty-five countries were represented.

* The founding fathers were President Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India, President Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, President Sukarno of Indonesia and President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana.

* Nasser, a champion of Arab nationalism, was a hero to Arabs for defying the United States and colonial powers Britain and France in the 1950s and 1960s. “We don’t want to become a part of any sphere of influence for any power. That is what the United States has tried to do with us,” he said.

NAM TODAY:

* The movement now has 118 member states, with 15 observer states, representing two-thirds of the members of the United Nations and half of the world’s population. It has struggled to find a role since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union’s collapse.

* The 118 are composed of 53 states in Africa, 38 in Asia, 1 in Europe and 26 in Latin America and the Caribbean.

CAIRO,  June 18 (Reuters) – Egypt’s food exports to Libya and Sudan will face increasing barriers after the introduction of new import duties and transport restrictions, the head of Egypt’s Food Industries Export Council said on Thursday.

Hany Berzy told Reuters Libya’s decision to impose a 10 percent import duty on Egyptian food commodities and Egypt’s decision to prohibit transfer of food products to Sudan via land was a double blow to the sector.

“Unfortunately, everyone is trying to introduce extra taxes to protect their local industries despite the fact that we have an Arab free trade agreement,” Berzy said, adding he did not know the exact reason Egypt restricted land transportation for commodities bound for Sudan. Read the full story

Reuters is reporting the first case of the new H1N1 influenza virus in a 12-year-old American girl in Egypt. The source of the information is a Cairo-based official from the World Health Organisation. Read more: Reuters.

Egyptian authorities have increased security levels ahead of this weeks Obama visit to Cairo. According to officials in the capital this have been the biggest security measures in Egypt for a long time. Muslims have been waiting long for the speech by Barack Obama, which will address the relations between the United States and the Islamic world . Read more: IOL.