Egyptian-UK negotiations to reach new partnership deal

CAIRO - 17 January 2020: Assistant Foreign Minister for European Affairs Badr Abdel Aati had talks Friday with a high-level British delegation, under the UK chief negotiator for the Middle East and North Africa, on reaching a new partnership deal between the two countries.

The meeting falls within the third round of negotiations between Egypt and UK to reach a new partnership agreement after the UK's exit from the European Union (EU).

The third round of negotiations brought together all ministries and parties concerned from Egypt and Britain.






The two sides' talks focused on all files related to the new draft agreement to ensure that the Egyptian goods and products continue to enter the British market.

They also mulled regulating trade and economic relations between the two countries, taking into account the imminent exit of the United Kingdom from the EU.

In December, British Ambassador to Egypt Geoffrey Adams celebrated the arrival of the first direct flight from Britain to South Sinai’s Sharm el-Sheikh after a ban that had been imposed since 2015 over a plane crash was lifted.

“The British Embassy team was at Sharm el Sheikh airport this evening to welcome a direct flight from the UK,” Adams wrote on his Twitter account.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi praised the recent positive developments in the bilateral relations between Egypt and Britain, in a phone call with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in December, including a decision by the British government to resume flights from Britain to Sharm El-Sheikh.

In October, Adams said in "Al Hekaya" talk show that after the ban lift on flights from the UK to Sharm El Sheikh Airport both Egypt and the UK “can promote Sharm El Sheikh as a happy holiday destination.”

Adams said he thinks that the economic benefits will be huge and that he is very conscious that people running hotels and people working in hotels in Sharm El Sheikh will benefit hugely from British tourists increasing in number.

The ambassador said that the ban lift is the outcome of “the intense cooperation between the Egyptian and British authorities over many months,” which led to “the confidence to make that decision” on the UK's side.

Adams stated that nearly half a million British tourists will visit Egypt this year. “The vast majority of them will enjoy a happy trouble-free holidays. And, many British people live here as well happily as I do myself,” the ambassador added.

Additional reporting by MENA