Egypt’s Ambassador to the Russian Federation Ihab Nasr and Russia’s Deputy Minister of Culture Olga Yarilova signed, on Tuesday, a declaration of intent marking 2021-2022 as the year of joint humanitarian exchange between the two countries.
According to a statement from Egypt’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the agreement was signed by the two officials on behalf of both Egyptian and Russian governments.
During the signing ceremony, Nasr delivered a speech in which he emphasised that the year of humanitarian exchange between Egypt and Russia is “a comprehensive and unique event in the history of the two countries.”
He added, “A huge number of cultural, artistic, sports, youth, student and educational events will be organised alternately between the two countries, numbering nearly 200 events.”
The events include activities in the fields of culture, arts, literature, education, higher education, tourism, archaeology, youth, sports and media, as well as parliamentary events to cover all aspects of communication and humanitarian cooperation between the two countries.
Nasr also mentioned that the agreement to inaugurate the year of exchange had taken place during the summit between Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, which took place in Sochi in October 2018.
The inauguration was supposed to have taken place in 2020, but the circumstances of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic prevented it from taking place as scheduled.
