For the third time in the history of the cooperation, V4+Egypt Foreign Ministers' met in Budapest. The aim of the Foreign Ministers' programme was to prepare the 2nd V4+Egypt Summit on October 12. The meeting was attended by Minister Péter Szijjártó, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry, Czech Foreign Minister Jakub Kulhánek, Polish Defence Minister Mateusz Blaszczak and Slovak Deputy Foreign Minister Martin Klus.
At the meeting, the parties discussed the latest developments on migration, praising Egypt's successful intervention in closing the sea migration route and its engagement in development cooperation with African countries. The V4 calls for a pragmatic approach towards Egypt as a guarantor of stability in the Middle East and North Africa region and they consider the EU's and the international community's human rights criticism counterproductive.
The parties agreed that the situation in Afghanistan is generating a new wave of migration and that the insecurity caused by the Taliban takeover could serve as a breeding ground for terrorist cells. Energy diversification efforts in the Central European region and the export potential of natural gas reserves in Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean could complement each other well in the coming years, the parties agreed to explore possibilities for cooperation.
Minister Shukry briefed on the conflict situation over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), which he sees no short-term solution to due to a lack of political will on the Ethiopian side. The parties also stressed the need for vaccine supply in African countries, where cooperation is being sought primarily on a bilateral basis, but where experience is being shared in the V4+Egypt format as well.
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