Mauritania reviews existing cooperation with Egypt: Media

CAIRO - 18 February 2020: Egypt and Mauritania have probed means to strengthen ties between both countries, particularly in the financial cooperation domains.

Mauritania’s Finance Minister Mohamed Al-Amin Ould Al-Thahabi and Egypt’s ambassador to Mauritania Ahmed Salama reviewed existing cooperation between the two countries, Mauritanian radio reported on Monday, without providing further details.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, in 2018, discussed with his Mauritanian counterpart at the time Yahya Ould Hademine ways to promote common cooperation between the two countries.

Madbouly arrived to Mauritania’s Nouakchott to participate in the African Summit on the behalf of the President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

In the same context, presidential spokesman Bassam Rady told MENA that Egypt is keen on enhancing its relations with African countries as President Sisi placed the Egyptian-African ties among the top priorities of the foreign relations’ files and focused on the continent’s issues in most of his activities since assuming power in 2014.

He added that the file aims to intensify meeting with African leaders and visiting several African countries besides participating in the African summits, pointing out that such efforts resulted in promoting Egypt’s ties with African countries.

Also, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry was received by Egyptian Ambassador to Mauritania the same year.

Sisi’s several visits to the African countries since coming to power are considered to be a move which helped to spur Egyptian-African trade exchanges, investments, economic partnership and cooperation in various sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, vocational training, banking, mining and human development.

In June 2014, Sisi participated in the African Union Summit in the Equatorial Guinea as his first presidential visit within the continent, which was considered then a restoration of the African-Egyptian relations after years of neglect during Mubarak’s era.

Several short visits during 2015 followed the African Union Summit participation, including visits to Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda per Yuri Museveni's invitation in December 2016.

African Affairs Committee member in the Egyptian Parliament, Hatem Bashat, told Egypt Today that it is true that the African-Egyptian relations were forgotten for a while, however “since Sisi took office, he started a new strategy aiming to restore our role within the continent.”

“This tour is a reflection of the Egyptian diplomacy with our African neighbors since 2014; we have strong points in our relations and long history to relay on,” Bashat further explained.

He added that Sisi has a fixed strategy during dealing with the African countries, “for example, with Rwanda, we are keen to develop investments; with Tanzania we discuss the water security files; while Chad is considered one of the crucial countries for our national security,” Bashat told Egypt Today.

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MENA contributed to the reporting