Egypt tries to find new international balance in Asia
Egypt, Analysis, 12/10/1997

During the past years, voices were heard loudly warning against the implications of dealing with the issue of globalization. Those voices said that globalization is an inescapable fate which will force whoever embraces it to adopt one type of development which would be of high cost to the people. On the other hand, there were voices representing government authorities in the Arab media praising globalization.

After much debate between the two groups, it seems that some clarity about this issue ensued as the nature of globalization started to impose itself on everybody. Globalization appeared as a hurricane which came to sweep all the attempts of the developing countries to develop on their own terms and pace and has forced them to cope with these new changes of the new world order.

George Bush and James Baker were inaugurating the Strategic Studies Institute in Washington, speaking about the positive phenomenon of globalization on the international arena, at the same time President Hosni Mubarak was attending the 15 Countries Summit in Kuala Lumpur and calling for united efforts from developing countries in the face of globalization and its implications as it threatens economic and national industries of third world countries.

The Prime Minister of Malaysia stated that there is a new "colonization" that is trying to control the third world through economic means, through this globalization phenomena.

Some days later, in one of the seminars in Alexandria Egypt, Osama Al Baz spoke about globalization and stated that there is only one way to achieve progress: not following globalization. Baz continued stating that the Japanese example of economic development offers a different model of development from that promoted by the USA , and China is a clear example of that. He also said that Egypt should determine which development path to take.

What was said by the Egyptian President about encountering globalization and its implications on the developing economies was not just rhetoric. The independent feelings that have been demonstrated lately through the speeches of Dr. Kamal Al Ganzouri and Foreign Minister Amr Moussa voice a new Egyptian philosophy about facing the negative implications of globalization on the political and economic levels. This philosophy is not a reaction to a secret crisis in the US-Egyptian relations or the result of the collapse in the peace process in the Middle East.

Ganzouri believes that the next two years will be decisive for Egypt as it will invest all its efforts in economic development. Thus, Mubarak's visit to Moscow was not just to involve Russian diplomacy in the Middle East peace process, it was an attempt to search for new horizons for the Egyptian economy which is looking for a strong presence in the East.

Egypt tried to keep balanced relations on many fronts to help its economic development. The Egyptian movement toward the East reflects the new Egyptian political philosophy which is attempting to keep strong ties to China and Malaysia.

Thus, recent months have witnessed great progress in Egyptian relations with China, which has become the second most powerful economic force in the world. China will join the seven great nations in a short time.

Egypt is aware of the dangers associated with globalization in the new world order. Thus, its intiatives towards the East are not only an attempt to prove its ability to have balanced relation with the East verses theWest, but an attempt to inject a strong role for Egyptian foreign policy which is using these balanced relations for its economic development.

Previous Stories:
  Aziz meets with AL secretary-general   (11/21/1997)
  Egyptian minister of supply signs Chinese agreements   (10/16/1997)
  Japan to sign cultural agreement with Egypt   (8/27/1997)

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