Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry received, on Tuesday, Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, as part of his visit to Cairo to participate in the meeting of the Arab ministerial contact committee on Syria.
During the meeting, Minister Shoukry stressed the keenness of the Arab Committee to complete its task in order to help resolve the protracted Syrian crisis, provide a helping hand to the brotherly Syrian people to overcome their ordeal, and preserve Syria’s unity and territorial integrity, said Ahmed Abu Zeid, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The meeting touched on aspects related to the meeting of the Arab Contact Committee, which is in line with the role of the Arab League and member states to promote joint Arab action and unite to reach a settlement to the Syrian crisis in all its political, economic and humanitarian dimensions.
During the meeting, Shoukry expressed his hope that the committee would succeed in achieving the objectives of the meeting.
The Foreign Minister also received a briefing from Minister Mekdad on the latest developments on the situation in Syria at various levels and the efforts made by the Syrian Government to deal with various aspects of the Syrian crisis,
This includes the return of refugees, the fight against terrorism and drugs, security cooperation with Arab countries in Syria’s neighborhood, and issues of early recovery and the imposition of Syrian sovereignty on its territory.
Later on Tuesday, Shoukry also received Prince Faisal bin Farhan, the Saudi Foreign Minister, where he discussed with him ways to strengthen the course of bilateral relations, discuss and exchange views on various regional issues and crises in the region..
The meeting comes on the sidelines of the two ministers’ participation in the Arab ministerial contact group meeting on Syria held on Tuesday in Cairo.
During the meeting, Shoukry stressed that the Egyptian side is proud of the close and fraternal ties between the two countries in various fields, both at the official and popular levels, which derive their strength from the long-standing relations that have always linked the two brotherly countries and peoples,
Shoukry expressed his aspiration to continue working together to push forward the mechanisms of consultation and coordination to deepen the frameworks of bilateral cooperation in the sectors of priority for the two countries in a way that serves the interests and aspirations of the two brotherly peoples.
For his part, the Saudi Foreign Minister praised the distinguished and fraternal relations between Egypt and Saudi Arabia on various political and economic levels, affirming his country’s pride in the momentum achieved in the bilateral relations in various fields.
The meeting dealt with the developments in the region and ways to strengthen the mechanisms of consultation and coordination between Egypt and Saudi Arabia towards it, foremost among them the situations in Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Syria.
The two ministers stressed the need to promote solidarity frameworks and joint Arab action in facing various crises in the region in order to preserve Arab national security, and to ensure that the solutions proposed for these issues are purely Arab, and that the peoples of the region can determine their own destiny in a manner that meets their aspirations for stability, further progress and prosperity.
