EU-Egypt Association Council: Joint Press remarks by High Representative Kaja Kallas and Badr Abdelatty, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates of Egypt

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Minister Abdelatty, dear Badr, it is a great pleasure to welcome you here in Luxembourg today, and all of your delegation as well. This evening there will be a Belgium and Egypt match, so that is actually very difficult, but I hope you do not mind that we will still steer for the European team as the High Representative of the European Union. But I wish you all the best as well on that front.

But before that, we have our meeting today.

We are - EU and Egypt - strategic partners. Association Council is the first since we signed our Strategic and Comprehensive Partnership in 2024 and we have come a long way since then. 

Today, we will discuss how we can move on in the strategic priorities, including: trade, investment, energy, green transition, migration, people to people contacts. 

We are also stepping up our security cooperation. In this security environment, I think it is extremely important. Earlier this month, the EU agreed an additional €20 million support for the package for Egypt Armed Forces. This will help strengthen maritime security in the Mediterranean and the Red Sea, and these are two waterways that are of strategic importance, both for the EU, but also for Egypt.

Russia's shadow fleet poses a great danger, both in European and Egyptian waters, and we will also discuss how we can tighten sanctions enforcement together. In the Mediterranean, EU naval vessels from Operation IRINI are now boarding ships smuggling Russian oil, and the EU will continue to make those operations harder, riskier, as well as more costly. 

I want to commend Egypt for playing a vital role in regional diplomacy. Today, we heard news as well, including you hosting Hamas disarmament talks and supporting the Iran talks. We appreciate your commitment to mediation.

Ministers will also discuss the wars in the region - the lack of progress in implementing the Gaza Peace plan holds the region back. The terms are very clear: Hamas must disarm, Israel must pull back, and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza must move in.

As a priority, we also want to see the increase of the flow of people at the Rafah border crossing and continue to facilitate medical evacuations. And again, Egypt is our key partner here.  

So, dear Badr, I look forward to our discussions. Thank you for being here. 

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/media/video/I-291112