Egyptian Air Forces’ aerobatics team, “Silver Stars”, performed an air show with the South Korean “Black Eagles” aerobatic team on Wednesday, at the Giza Pyramids plateau. The two teams carried out various flying manoeuvres reflecting the friendly relations between the two countries.
The Egyptian Gazelle helicopters “Horus Team” and Paratroopers also took part in the show. The event was witnessed by 800 guests and tourists in the pyramids plateau.
It was the first air show ever performed in the Giza Pyramids area. All safety measures were adopted to protect the archaeological area.
Korean and Egyptian governments have prepared jointly for the show since May. It was another great opportunity for strengthening the bilateral ties of two nations. Egypt and Korea share strong ties in diverse fields, including defence industries. An agreement to manufacture K-9 was signed in February.
South Korean Ambassador to Egypt, Hong Jin-wook, said that both aerobatics teams presented a great show.
“It was an honour to see these two teams performing together. They will consistently encounter each other on different air shows, and today’s valuable experience will help them to continue their relationship in the future,” he said.
The Ambassador said that this air show and on-going defence projects indicate the strong mutual trust between two nations, which serves as a base for a comprehensive cooperative partnership.
He also stressed that this momentum for cooperation has been created thanks to high-level personnel exchanges such as visits by the Korean president, the speaker of the National Assembly, and the defence minister to Egypt as well as on-going interactions in varied fields.
Ambassador Hong asserted that Korea will continue to bolster its bilateral relations with Egypt in all fields including S&T, infrastructure, trade, investment, and most importantly people-to-people exchange.
He told Daily News Egypt that until several years ago, it was not easy to imagine the airplanes of the Korean Air Force flying over the Pyramids. However, today, eight Black Eagles performed an aerobatics display in cooperation with Silver Stars above the beautiful Egyptian territories. As the case proves, military cooperation between two countries can take a big step at any time.
Hong pointed out that Korea’s participation in the EDEX 2021 and the exchanges of high-level personnel resulted in creating momentum for defence industrial cooperation between the two countries.
“Korea has developed advanced defence technologies and is capable of manufacturing a variety of high-tech defence equipment. Besides the K-9 howitzer, which we agreed to manufacture jointly here in Egypt last February, Korea is also trying to provide T-50 attack trainers, K2 Black Panther tanks, etc in the form of joint manufacturing. It is not easy to predict which equipment will be next in existence in Egypt, but Korea will try to remain a reliable defense industry partner of Egypt at all times,” he said.
