Last week the Serbian Parliamentary Friendship Group with Egypt met with Egypt’s ambassador to Serbia, Amr Aljowaily, the Egyptian embassy in Belgrade said in an official statement.

The meeting was headed by the deputy speaker of the parliament, Dubravka Filipovski, and the vice-chairman of the group, Danica Bukvić, and Bojan Torbica.

The group highlighted the parliamentary speaker, Maja Gojković’s, intention to host an exhibition on 19 July at the premises of the National Assembly, which will feature the most important historical documents on the relations between Egypt and Serbia and will mark the 110th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Aljowaily also met with Miroslav Perisic, director-general of Serbia’s national archives, and Milan Trzić, director-general of the Yugoslavian national archives. The three agreed to issue a documentary book collecting historical documents on the relations between Egypt and Serbia.

“This would further strengthen the rich historical and cultural ties between the two countries and transfer the knowledge it to future generations”, said Aljowaily.

Aljowaily  presented Perisic with a gift of papyrus gift, as one of oldest forms of documents.

The directors of the Serbian and Yugoslav archives welcomed efforts to conclude a memorandum of understanding with the Egyptian National Library and Archives, representatives of which was invited to participate in the celebration of the 120th anniversary of the creation of the Serbian national archives scheduled for 14 December.

The book, entitled Serbia in Egyptian Eyes, and edited by Aljowaily, was added to the collection of the Serbian Public Library Archive, as it contains the oral history of the relations between the two countries, including memoirs of Egyptian ambassadors in Belgrade since the break-up of Yugoslavia and foundation of the current Republic of Serbia.

Aljowaily called on academic institutions that specialise in teaching history to encourage postgraduate students to prepare studies on the relocation of the government of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia for several months in 1941 to Egypt as an interesting yet understudied phase in the relations between the two countries.

The Serbian Parliamentary Friendship Group with Egypt met with Egypt’s Ambassador to Belgrade Amr Aljowaily (Photo: courtesy of the Egyptian Embassy in Belgrade)