Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his Finnish counterpart Pekka Haavisto pose for an image before their meeting on Tuesday 20 September, 2022. Photo courtesy of Egyptian Foreign Ministry Facebook page.
Egypt and Finland, which are more than 2,000 miles apart, do not share direct flights.
Egypt, which relies heavily on tourism as a source of national income, receives a large number of European tourists via air travel every year, including from Finland. In 2020, Egypt received more than 2.3 million tourists from European countries despite the COVID-19 lockdowns, according to Statista.
Shoukry and Haavisto met on Tuesday on the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs read.
The ministers also agreed on exploring new areas of cooperation between the two countries in renewable energy, communications, information technology, and digital services.
They also called for enhancing cooperation in the agricultural and fish farming, the statement said.
Egypt and Finland share firm economic relations and broad cooperation in various fields, especially in tourism and energy, given that Finland is a world leader in clean and renewable energy.
Egypt is working on increasing the supply of electricity generated from renewable sources to 42 percent by 2035.
In March, a group of Egyptian companies, including the state-owned Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC), signed an MoU with the Finnish shipbuilding company Deltamarin to build a ship that would serve as the country’s first floating power plant.
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