Cairo – Mubasher: Egypt’s Ministry of International Cooperation held joint committee meetings as well as tripartite meetings during 2021 to boost bilateral relations and cooperation across different sectors with several countries.

The joint committees were held with Jordan, Libya, South Sudan, and Ukraine, while the tripartite ministerial meetings were between Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq, the ministry said in an official statement.

Earlier this year, in March, Egypt’s Prime Minister, Mostafa Madbouly, and Jordanian Prime Minister, Bisher Al Khasawneh, chaired the 29th Joint Egyptian-Jordanian Higher Committee meetings in Amman.

The joint committee witnessed seven agreed-upon documents, memoranda of understanding (MoU), and cooperation agreements in the fields of and renewable energy, planning, water, urban development, and tech-related segments.

Egypt also had a joint higher committee with Libya in September, marking the first committee meeting held since 2009. The meeting resulted in 20 joint agreements and executive contracts.

The two countries penned MoUs on joint cooperation in social affairs, civil aviation, combating marine pollution and its effects, marine search, as well as housing and construction.

In addition, there were joint agreements on youth and sports, oil and gas, as well as MoU between Libya’s Organization for Development of Administrative Centers (ODAC) and a group of Egyptian firms like Orascom Construction, Rowad Modern Engineering, and Hassan Allam Holding.

As for the tripartite cooperation between Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq, the three countries discussed ways to strengthen strategic and economic cooperation in the fields of electricity and renewable energy, oil and mineral resources, trade, housing, utilities, transportation, besides agriculture and other sectors.

Last July, Egypt and South Sudan held a joint higher committee, during which an agreement was signed to implement a project studying the risk of flooding in South Sudan’s Bahr el Jebel, in addition to more MoUs covering several fields like trade and industry.

The Egyptian-Ukrainian Committee for Economic, Scientific, and Technical Cooperation was held in December to boost bilateral cooperation where an agreement was signed between both countries covering quality, specifications, and standardisation, as well as MoU in the field of space.

The Egyptian Space Agency and the State Space Agency of Ukraine signed an agreement “for cooperation in space and in the peaceful uses of outer space, including cooperation in research and exploration, while encouraging the exchange of knowledge and experiences between both countries to benefit from human resources and technologies,” according to the statement.