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19 July 2018 National Assembly Speaker Maja Gojkovic and the Speaker of the Egyptian House of Representatives Ali Abdel Aal Ahmed

Thursday, 19 July 2018

Gojkovic Meets with Speaker of Egyptian House of Representatives

The Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Maja Gojkovic met today with the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Arab Republic of Egypt Ali Abdel Aal Ahmed. The two heads of parliament agreed that this, the first historical visit by an Egyptian Parliament Speaker to Serbia, opens a new chapter of parliamentary cooperation between the two countries.

Gojkovic and Aal Ahmed said that the visit comes in the year marking 110 years of historically good and friendly diplomatic relations which the two countries are ready to additionally strengthen and expand as well as cooperation in general in view of their many common interests.

Gojkovic and Aal Ahmed stressed that they are especially proud of the history of relations and cooperation dating back to the times of the Non-Aligned Movement. Gojkovic reminded the guest that the edifice of the National Assembly House hosted the founding summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in 1961, stressing that Serbia’s strategic commitment to EU accession is to be accompanied by strengthening of relations with traditional friends, African countries in particular.

Gojkovic thanked the Speaker of the Egyptian House of Representatives and the leadership of the Arab Republic of Egypt for never voting against Serbia’s interests in international forums and being a true friend that supports Serbia’s international views and position.

Gojkovic and Aal Ahmed agreed that interparliamentary cooperation is an important segment of overall cooperation, one that helps deepen and expand relations between the parliaments, their working bodies, friendship group and delegations in international organizations.

They also discussed institutionalizing parliamentary cooperation by signing a memorandum of cooperation, and Gojkovic said that the two parliaments can also cooperate under the auspices of the Memorandum of Interparliamentary Cooperation between the National Assembly and the Pan-African Parliament, seeing how Serbia is the only European parliament with a treaty of this kind with the Pan-African Parliament.

Gojkovic and Aal Ahmed urged to strengthen economic ties and boost the volume of trade and opined that a meeting of the Joint Committee for Economic Cooperation could help advance the matter. The two heads of parliament said that it would be good to foster closer ties between the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and the Egyptian Business Council and that a direct flight between Belgrade and Cairo would contribute to closer business cooperation and development of tourism.

The Speaker of the Egyptian House of Representatives addressed the MPs at a special sitting of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and the two heads of parliament attended the opening of an exhibition in honour of 110 years of diplomatic relations between Serbia and Egypt at the National Assembly House.