Egypt s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly with several Egyptian Ministers, during their meeting with Qatar s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Minister of Finance Ahmed El-Kuwari and several Qatari officials taken on Tuesday 29 March, 2022. Photo courtesy of Egyptian Cabinet Facebook page.
The agreement comes "within the framework of boosting economic cooperation and investments between the two brotherly countries," the Egyptian Cabinet said in a statement.
The meeting was attended by Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Planning and Economic Development Hala El-Said, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait, Qatar's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Minister of Finance Ahmed El-Kuwari, and Qatar's Ambassador in Cairo Salem bin Mubarak Al Shafi.
The meeting highlighted the importance of strengthening cooperation and coordination between Egypt and Qatar in various fields, the statement said.
The two sides hailed the step to establish a high joint committee between Egypt and Qatar, which was announced in a joint statement following a meeting between the two countries’ foreign ministers on Monday, to boost cooperation and coordination in all fields as well as to continue consultations.
In a press conference following his Cairo talks with Shoukry yesterday, the top Qatari diplomat said that Egyptian-Qatari relations are in constant development, affirming his government's keenness for upgrading these relations.
“We see that the horizon of the relations between Qatar and Egypt is wide in boosting economic partnership and communication between the two countries on all levels,” the Qatari FM said, adding that the past period that was marred by tensions is over.
During the presser, Shoukry said Egypt looks forward to continuing the friendly relations and cooperation with Qatar, adding that their discussions addressed activating bilateral relations and exploring chances of cooperation in various fields.
The Qatari delegation's visit to Egypt comes as the two countries continue to explore developing cooperation on multiple levels following the restoration of diplomatic and economic ties with the 2021 Ula agreement, which ended a three-and-half-year Cairo boycott of Doha.
An Egyptian-Qatari follow-up committee – set up after the signing of the Ula agreement – has already held seven rounds of negotiations over the past year, the last of which was in Doha last September, to develop the two countries' relations. The rounds of talks have seen the signing of a number of bilateral deals for enhancing cooperation between the relevant authorities.
"The impurities that plagued the relations were removed through consensus on the statement of Al-Ula, the subsequent honest and sincere activation of the follow-up committee, and the positive results it reached," Shoukry said during the presser on Monday.
Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani have met or talked on the phone on more than one occasion since the signing of Al-Ula.
The two leaders met on the sidelines of the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing in February.
El-Sisi and the Qatari emir also held a meeting last winter on the sidelines of the UN Conference of Parties on Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.
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