Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, president-elect of COP27, co-chaired a ministerial meeting on climate commitments in Copenhagen on Thursday.
British Minister of State in the Cabinet Office Alok Sharma, President of COP26, and Danish Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities Dan Jorgensen also chaired the meeting.
Participating were Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and several ministers and officials from UNFCCC member states and civil society figures.
According to Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ahmed Hafez, Shoukry underscored the importance of the meeting to exchange views and experiences on the implementation aspects of international climate action.
As President-designate of COP27, Shoukry explained that this could be done by implementing the outcomes of the Paris climate agreement and meeting national emission reduction commitments, in addition to other commitments announced at the of the Glasgow meeting last year.
Shoukry then met Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen as part of his visit to Copenhagen, Hafez said.
He said Cairo wants to advance relations with Denmark and strengthen ties at the political, economic, cultural and parliamentary levels.
He expressed his aspiration to increase the trade exchange rate between the two countries and pave the way for increased Egyptian exports to Denmark.
Shoukry further underlined Cairo’s interest in boosting Danish investment, promoting Denmark’s participation in Egyptian development plans and increasing bilateral cooperation in a number of areas and sectors, chief among them renewable energy, green economy, health care and pharmaceutical production.
Hafez said the meeting touched on Egypt’s preparations to host the COP27 UN Climate Change Conference in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh in November.
FM praised the cooperation with Denmark among other international partners to make the conference a success.
Furthermore, the Egyptian ambassador to Belgium Badr Abdel Aty, the head of the human rights committee in the House of Representatives, MP Tarek Radwan, the under-secretary of the committee, MP Mohamed Abdelaziz, met on Thursday with the President of the Belgian House of Representatives, Eliane Tillieux.
According to an Egyptian statement, the meeting discussed ways to strengthen Egyptian-Belgian parliamentary relations, especially at the political, economic and trade levels.
The officials also discussed various political issues, including human rights.
Egypt’s economic, social and political achievements were reviewed during the meeting, including the strengthening of political participation.
