Mubarak addresses the Council on Foreign Relations
Egypt-USA, Politics, 3/7/2002

The Egyptian President Mubarak addressed Tuesday members on the Council of Foreign Relations at a luncheon.

Following is the full text of President Mubarak's speech:

Thank You Mrs. Berger, Mr. Peterson, Ambassador Walker, Ladies and Gentlemen

I would like at the outset to thank the Council on Foreign Relations and the Middle East Institute for inviting me to address you today. I feel that it is on such occasions that we can share our thoughts and bring our two peoples closer together.

After the tragic events of September 11, I can find no words to express the horror and sorrow we have felt in Egypt, all of Egypt, at this barbaric act. We have suffered through similar experiences for several years.

The senseless violence, the innocent lives lost, the families destroyed, all for a distorted view of the world and sick ideas that bear no relation to our humanity and our common civilization.

I say common civilization because this tragedy instead of tearing us apart has brought us closer together. Instead of bringing forth the divide between religions and peoples, it has uncovered our shared values, our common humanity and our simple goals of peace and happiness in our daily lives.

This tragic event underscores that the world community must work together in confronting terrorism in all its aspects. It has established once and for all that the prosperity of some must be the prosperity of all, and the sorrows and injustices of others must be those of all of us.

And we have acted. We have responded together to these forces of darkness and we endeavour to remove from our midst this cancer that threatens us all. And now, we must act as one, so that we can one day rid the world of this scourge. For it will take many forms yet, and it will try again in different parts of the world.

Today, more than even before, we must care for each other.

We must listen to each other. And most of all, we must trust each other.

If not we risk solving one problem by sowing the seeds of many others.

The Egypt that you see today is an Egypt that was borne of a vision conceived over twenty years ago. An Egypt that opted for Peace when peace was alien to its region.

Egypt chose to engage the world in its quest for prosperity through greater openness, greater freedom.

We have an unshakable resolve to reform our society and our economy.

We have not shied away from lighting the path ahead for our region.

And throughout, we were guided by three broad principles of policy.

First; Egypt belongs to a broader region and will not truly prosper alone.

Second; Egypt is a partner to the world and must work in harmony with its welfare.

Third; Egypt has the resources and the vision for its own prosperity.

Ever since its independence Egypt has assumed unique responsibilities in the Arab world and Africa.

We led the movements of independence, with the vision of the time.

We brought forth a shared identity that would be the foundation of future progress. And when it was time for change, time for peace, we showed the way.

We took courageous steps and paid dearly for it. We kept out resolve. Our commitment to a region of peace, of tolerance, free from oppression and injustice remains unshaken.

And to this day, amid the suffering and the violence, our commitment remains. But it is a commitment that needs vision and courage, not of US alone but of all involved.

Today in the land of the prophets, the dreamers, the visionaries, we need to find again this vision of people and peace of centuries past.

We need to work together, Egypt and the United States, so that we can together-and I quote from the Charter of this great nation- "secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity".

The world community must embrace the values of tolerance, coexistence and respect for each other, regardless of race, gender or creed.

We have worked at this for the last thirty years and have seen many opportunities go by untapped.

Today we extend our hand to you so that together we can show the way to those who will not see, and guide the steps of those who will not move. We owe it to them, but most of all we owe it to ourselves and our children.

The Arab-Israeli conflict generated despair and an endless cycle of violence. And until we redress the injustice to all the peoples involved, it will continue, destroying the fabric of their societies.

We owe it to the peoples of the Middle East never to lose sight of the core issue.

A land was occupied by force. This occupation, with its settlements, its coercion and its grief for all involved, has denied an entire people its right to a nation to an identity and to a future to call its own. In this new millennium, where the rights of peoples are paramount in our community of nations. This cannot be. This must not be.

Ever since the Cairo summit of 1996, the Arab world declared that peace is its strategic goal, to be achieved through the formula of "land for peace," and the implementation of the relevant UN resolutions.

The shape of peace in the Middle East is clearer today than it ever was. Occupation must end. Palestinians must have their viable state. Coexistence and security for all countries in the region must be guaranteed. This is what we called for.

The difficulty is not in the vision of peace but in achieving it. We want an end to the cycle of violence and an end to the climate of fear.

Towards this end I received several Palestinian and Israeli leaders. I offered to host security and political talks in Egypt. I offered to arrange a meeting between Arafat and Sharon. These offers remain on the table.

Egypt goes beyond the holy cities, the prophets and the desert lands, to a deeper continent of great promise and untapped potential. The Africa we know is an Africa of riches in humane and resources, and Africa that can, on its own, join the world community in prosperity.

We must develop its capacities to grow to harness its potential and fulfill its promise.

Let us join hands in creating the last new world on our planet; free from civil strife and oppression, and able to harness its own resources with its own people.

But Egypt's commitments extend well beyond the Middle East and Africa. We are part of this global community of nations and we will assume our share of responsibility.

We will join hands in fighting terrorism wherever it may be and whatever its forms.

We will speak our mind on the ideas of our common prosperity. As members of the United Nations, of the IMF, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization, we will build tougher a world of nations truly united.

We share your values but you must share our eyes to see the problems of the third world so that we may solve them together.

Share our vision, for we are partners, share our problems, for only together will we solve them.

And it is this same vision that has guided our efforts at developing Egypt.

We had to address poverty, illiteracy and the despair that comes from years and years of war and enmity. And we chose to do so by building the minds of Egypt, through education and health care, by changing the society of Egypt through democracy and the rule of law.

We have to build an economy that is open, market-based and driven by the private sector. We chose the global economy as our partner in development.

We have achieved much and much remains to be done. But we continue secure in the knowledge that our children are taught to never forget that their country has always been home to many races and many religions; that the Quran, the Bible and the Torah are the heavenly texts that inhabit all of our hearts.

Today over 95 percent of our children are in schools, with curricula that are constantly revised to keep up with the world at large; a world of progress and innovation, of promise and ingenuity bound only by our ability to dream of a better future for our people.

We have started Public-private partnerships in education so that we shall all be the guardians of our freedom and the freedom of our children.

Most of all we are building the society that will shield us from extremism and prejudice. Democracy is foremost a society of institutions, of tolerance, of human rights, of laws that guard them and freedom of expression that guards us all.

Democracy in Egypt is an ever evolving goal, constantly growing, taking root in our midst, building on a growing maturity and society that, today, knows how to prosper.

In the past two to three years, our economic reforms have entered a new phase. Our institutions have had to learn for the first time to deal with adversity in a market-based system, driven by the private sector.

A second generation of reforms is taking shape. Reforms that teach our policymakers to properly assess the elements of change and draft the policies that fit them.

To many, these last two years may have looked confused and hesitant, but they are the transition to the final shape of stable, sustainable, economic prosperity.

We will learn ourselves of the right policies. We will make our own mistakes but we will stay the course we have chosen long ago. We have opened our economy to the world at large, we are adapting to it and will soon harness its vast potential for growth.

The United States and Egypt started a journey together. One that has not been easy and one that is still unfinished. A great tragedy has brought us closer, and has shown how frail our prosperity and welfare can be.

Many people have given their lives so that we should take better care of ours. We owe it to them to unite our two nations against all those forces that wish us apart.

We must continue together what we started twenty five years ago. We are different but we share a vision of prosperity for the peoples of the Middle East and indeed for the world at large. Let us join forces for we can reach out to a better future and together we well prevail.

Previous Stories:
  Mubarak holds summit meeting with Bush   (3/6/2002)
  Mubarak's visit to US is highly important   (3/4/2002)
  Mubarak: Egyptian-US relations are excellent   (2/28/2002)

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