Friday, January 18 2019 12:00

ArmInfo.Cairo attaches importance to the claunch of negotiations on a free trade agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union and Egypt. Egyptian Prime  Minister  Moustafa Madbouly said this yesterday at the meeting with  Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Mher Grigoryan.

According to the press service of the Armenian government, the  Egyptian Prime Minister praised the efforts of the Deputy Prime  Minister of Armenia in this process.

Expressing gratitude for the reception, Mher Grigoryan stressed that  for Armenia - a member of the EAEU - it is very important to develop  friendly and mutually beneficial relations with Egypt, including in  the trade and economic sector. Presenting the volume of trade of the  EAEU countries with Egypt, the Deputy Prime Minister expressed the  hope that the established cooperation would be a good basis for a  successful negotiation process and the signing of a free trade  agreement.

During the meeting, the interlocutors discussed the state of the  Armenian-Egyptian relations and opportunities for their development.  Mher Grigoryan noted that despite the fact that diplomatic relations  were established only 27 years ago, both states have deep historical  friendly ties, as evidenced by the powerful Armenian Diaspora of  Egypt. The parties stressed the importance of Armenian-Egyptian  cooperation in educational and cultural, tourism and other areas. The  presence of over 50 documents provide opportunities for the  development of cooperation in all areas.

At the same time, according to the press service of the Eurasian  Economic Commission, the EAEU and Egypt successfully completed the  first round of negotiations on the conclusion of the Free Trade  Agreement, which was held in Cairo (Egypt) on January 15-17. In  connection with the commencement of the talks, a visit was paid to  Cairo by Armenian Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Council of  the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) Mher Grigoryan and member of  the Board (Minister) for EEC Trade, Veronica Nikishina. The parties  discussed the main provisions of the agreement, fixed the agreed  positions and outlined the schedule for further work.

The EAEU and Egypt demonstrated readiness for a constructive dialogue  on the whole range of issues raised in the agreement, and confirmed  their desire to develop a full-scale progressive agreement aimed at  ensuring high-quality predictability of trade conditions and  transparency of trade regulation. The trade agreement will create new  opportunities for the EAEU countries to develop and diversify trade  with Egypt.  The trade turnover between the EAEU countries and Egypt  for the ten months of 2018 amounted to $ 5.8 billion, an increase of  21.2% compared with the same period in 2017. During the visit,  high-level meetings of Mher Grigoryan and Veronika Nikishina were  held with Egyptian Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly and Egyptian  Minister of Trade and Industry Amr Nassar. The parties noted the high  significance of the future agreement for the development of trade and  economic relations between the EAEU countries and Egypt and expressed  their readiness to provide the necessary support to delegations for  the successful advancement of the negotiations.

To recall, at present the Eurasian Economic Union is negotiating on  the conclusion of free trade agreements with the Arab Republic of  Egypt, the Republic of Singapore, the Republic of Serbia and the  State of Israel.