Egypt keen to continue cooperation with UNODC to combat cross-border crimes, cultural property trafficking: FM

CAIRO - 23 June 2022: Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Egypt is keen to continue cooperation with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to combat international organized and cross-border crimes as well as corruption and illicit cultural property trafficking.

This is in addition to building national capacities in the fields of priority to the Egyptian side, Shoukry said as he received on Thursday UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly.

During the meeting, Shoukry praised the efforts made by UNODC in backing the African priorities in the field of combating drugs and organized crimes.

He affirmed Egypt’s support to these efforts in a way that enhances the pillars of security and stability in the African continent. The meeting also discussed ways to enhance aspects of cooperation between Egypt and UNODC during the coming period.

Shoukry and Waly discussed Egypt's upcoming presidency of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Climate Change Convention (COP27) and ways to develop cooperation between the two sides in connection with combating environmental crimes.

They discussed cooperation regarding means to raise awareness of these crimes and ways to highlight their great consequences especially on developing and least developed countries at COP27.

Earlier this month, Shoukry, the COP27 president-designate, and Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Patricia Espinosa Cantellano signed the Host Country Agreement for COP27.

During his presence in Bonn, Germany, in conjunction with the 56th session of the meetings of the UNFCCC Subsidiary Bodies, Shoukry referred to Egypt’s keenness to put the African climate change concerns at the forefront of the topics the session will address.

Shoukry said that the African continent is the most affected party by the negative repercussions of climate change, despite it being the least contributor to emissions, noting in the same regard the difficulties the African countries still face in obtaining the climate finance needed to address these repercussions.

Egypt is also keen to achieve consensus among the various international climate action stakeholders, especially with regard to the issues of adapting to climate change, mitigating its negative repercussions, addressing losses and damages, and providing climate finance, Shoukry said.

He emphasized that that upcoming Egyptian presidency of the COP attaches great importance to the issue of implementing climate pledges and transforming them into a concrete reality, whether in terms of meeting the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) or implementing the commitments and pledges made by the various parties involved in climate action.