Egypt hosts Arab-European summit next month - diplomat

CAIRO: 24 January 2019: Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevičius underlined the importance of Egypt's hosting the Arab League-European Union summit by the end of February.

The summit will take place in the Red Sea city of Sharm el Sheikh.

Speaking to MENA before leaving Cairo Thursday, Linkevičius said the Arab world plays an important role in the entire world and the EU is providing assistance to the Arab region.

He hoped the summit will come up with positive results.

As for the outcome of his Cairo visit, he said the visit aimed at enhancing bilateral relations.

He said he agreed with the Egyptian side to send a delegation in Autumn to Vilnius to hold the Egyptian-Lithuanian trade, economic and scientific higher committee committee.

He said his talks with Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry covered backing the two countries' candidates in international organizations and enhancing bilateral cooperation in the communications, information technology and financial services especially as Lithuania is known for its high-speed internet service.

Around 40,000 Lithuanian tourists visit Egypt annually and there is a high possibility that their number would increase with the increase of the number of flights between the two countries.

He also talked about the possibility of signing a legal assistance agreement in criminal cases, an agreement in the field of e-services and a memorandum of understanding in the agricultural domain.

He also expressed hope of stepping up cooperation with Egypt in the educational domain in light of the study of 40 Egyptian students in the Lithuanian universities, which provide good European education.

He expressed interest in inviting Egypt to participate in "Arab Culture Days" to take place in Vilnius in the fall.

The event is dedicated to Arab theater, he said, noting that last year's activities were dedicated to the Arabic Language.

He said a small Lithuanian-into-Arabic dictionary was issued and a copy of it was handed over to Shoukry.

As for the situation in Syria, he said the situation is still very fragile and one of the main reasons behind the instability in the Middle East.

He hoped the Arab League-EU summit would come up with an agreement on how to handle the situation in Syria.

He underlined the importance of finding radical solutions to the Syrian crisis.

As for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, he said his country is committed to the two-state solution and that it will not transfer its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

He said his country is trying to help push forward dialogue between the two sides given its good relations with the two sides.

He said Egypt can also play an important role in this regard in light of its relations with both the Palestinians and Israelis