Canadian - Egyptian Meeting
An Egyptian-Canadian meeting was held today at the premises of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry. The meeting was headed by Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa and his Canadian counterpart Lloyd Axworthy, who arrived in Cairo yesterday on his current regional tour.
Two agreements were signed by the two sides after the meeting; the first has to do with consular affairs and cooperation in this regard, while the second has to do with legal affairs.
After the meeting, Moussa stated that the discussions dealt with the peace process and bilateral relations in addition to international issues of mutual interest. The discussions also dealt with the economic cooperation between the two countries, including the investments and trade, in addition to studying setting up a free trade zone. Moussa stated that a Canadian mission will visit Egypt in December to start negotiations to set up an Egyptian-Canadian free trade zone.
Moussa added that the Canadian Foreign Minister's visit to the region is very important at this phase as Canada is very concerned with the region's affairs. Canadian-Israeli relations witnessed a crisis lately after the Mossad used forged Canadian passports in its attempt to assassinate Khaled Mishal in Jordan.
Moussa said that Canada is an important sponsor of the peace process, as it sponsors the Palestinian refugees' negotiations, which is an important issue. He expressed Egypt's appreciation for the Canadian role in the problem of the Palestinian refugees and Canada's attempt to return them to their homes or to compensate them for the crisis to which they had been subjected.
The Canadian Foreign Minister stated that the discussions dealt with the developments of the situation in the region and the deadlock in the peace process. Axworthy added that Canada is looking forward to increased cooperation with Egypt in an attempt to solve the problems encumbering the peace process.
Axworthy also said that he discussed with his Egyptian counterpart the issue of land mines. In answering the question whether the discussions dealt with the Iraqi crisis with the UN, Axworthy said that they tackled this point and that the UN envoy will submit his report to the UN secretary general Kofi Annan who in turn will brief Security Council members of the content of the report.