President Mohamed Morsy said his visit to Russia aims at attracting investments to reopen Russian industries in Egypt, and develop certain industries that have existed since the Soviet era, especially in the fields of aluminum, iron and steel production, and producing the High Dam’s turbines.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr said that Egypt hadn’t requested to join the BRICS group of emerging economies — an association that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — in response to reports that Russia had refused Egypt’s request to join the initiative.
Morsy’s comments on the BRICS initiative “reflect his desire to join, but [only] after Egypt takes economic steps forward that place it at the head of emerging countries,” Amr said.
Speaking from Moscow on Friday, Amr said that Morsy’s visit to Russia is crucial during the current phase, and added “there have been Russian investments in Egypt since the era of the Soviet Union in the sixties.”
He said the two countries are working on several fields of cooperation, particularly in regards to tourism, transportation and infrastructure.
Amr also assured that bilateral talks over the Syrian issue are ongoing, and said the two nations share some points of agreement and disagreement on the problem. Russia plays an important role in the Syrian issue, and the Morsy administration is urging Moscow to cooperate with Egypt through the quartet initiative proposed by the president to negotiate an end to the crisis.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
