Egypt’s FM meets Ivorian counterpart in Addis Ababa

CAIRO - 25 January 2018: Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry held talks on Thursday with his Ivorian counterpart Marcel Amon-Tanoh on the sidelines of the preliminary meetings of the African Union Summit, which runs from January 22 to 29 in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

During the meeting, the two top-diplomats probed ways of boosting bilateral ties, especially in light of the recent visit paid by the Ivorian president to Egypt in December 2017, Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Ahmed Abu Zeid said.

Also, Shoukry asserted the importance of strengthening bilateral cooperation in various domains, notably the trade exchange, in addition to expanding the activities of Egyptian companies into the Ivorian market, Abu Zeid added.

Moreover, Shoukry congratulated Amon-Tanoh on the selection of Côte d'Ivoire to be a non-permanent member at the UN Security Council during 2018-2019, expressing Cairo readiness to offer its experiment to the west African country in this regard, Abu Zeid noted.

The two foreign ministers touched on regional issues with common concern, including the fight against terrorism through boosting cooperation between Egypt and the Community of Sahel-Saharan States to firmly combat terrorism and cut off its sources of funding.

Shoukry has reviewed with Amon-Tanoh Egypt’s efforts to revive the Middle East peace process and achieve the Palestinian reconciliation as being a main step towards resuming the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations.

On his part, the Ivorian top-diplomat hailed as successful the meeting held between Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara and president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in December 2017.

Amon-Tanoh has called on Egyptian businessmen and the private sector to pump investments into the Ivorian market, highlighting that his country has taken several measures to improve the investment climate.