Celebrating the 64th anniversary of the start of diplomatic ties between China and Egypt, musicians from both countries gave a joint concert that was live-streamed on the culture ministry's YouTube channel and on China's online outlets.

The concert featured the Liaoning Chinese Symphony Orchestra performing on stage in Shenyang, joined by Egyptian musicians from the Cairo Symphony Orchestra performing online under the baton of the orchestra's musical director and principal conductor Ahmed El-Saedi.

The concert was made possible through cooperation between the Chinese Embassy and the Chinese Cultural Centre in Cairo, and their counterparts in China.

Commenting on the event, Egypt's Minister of Culture Ines Abdel-Dayem expressed that the strong bond between the two nations will help their battle against the novel coronavirus. She added that while both countries share the values of being great and old civilisations, culture is a soft power that creates channels of communication between peoples.

Abdel-Dayem confirmed that the partnership between Egypt and China in various fields strengthens ties and creates a common future between the two countries.

China's Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang underscored the strength of diplomatic relations between Egypt and China during the past 64 years and which will remain strong regardless of situations on the international scene. He stressed the importance of a rich cultural and artistic exchange between the two countries to consolidate friendship between the two peoples.

For his part, Magdy Saber, chairman of the Cairo Opera House, added that the music event is first such a big concert held online with the cooperation of musicians from both countries. He pointed to the profound history of Egyptian-Chinese artistic cooperation, which he hopes will be resumed as soon as the Covid-19 pandemic is over.'

The event was preceded by screening a documentary film about close ties between Egypt and China, including rare scenes of Beijing people organising a mass rally in Tian Tian Square in support of Egypt preserving its national sovereignty in the time of the nationalisation of the Suez Canal. The film also showed clips of the most important Chinese investments and projects in Egypt in the fields of construction, education, information technology, and cultural and artistic exchanges, in addition to mutual visits between the political leaderships of the two countries.

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