Bilateral meetings of Minister Daniel Mitov in Cairo
13 October 2014 News
Within the Donor Conference on Reconstructing Gaza, which took place on 12 October in Cairo, Minister Daniel Mitov held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Egypt, Palestine and Algeria.
The Bulgarian top diplomat and his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry discussed the current problems facing the Middle East peace process and the serious role of Egypt in the last months. Egypt will continue to be closely involved with the removal of barriers to the relaunch of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Minister Shoukry assured Daniel Mitov that that as of 20 October the Palestinian and Israeli delegations will resume their meetings in Cairo. He emphasized that the patience of Palestinian people is exhausted and all parties to the conflict must quickly find a way out of this deadlock.
Among the topics of conversation were also matters of bilateral interest. Minister Mitov expressed support for Egypt’s transition. Minister Shoukry said he counts on Bulgaria's cooperation within the dialogue with the EU for the signing of an agreement between Egypt and the Union. The two ministers agreed to accelerate the procedure of registering Bulgaria as a wheat exporter in Egypt, as well as that Bulgarian companies will participate in the big Egyptian project for expanding the capacity and capabilities of the Suez Canal.
During the meeting of Minister Mitov with the Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki, the Palestinian side expressed gratitude for the participation of the Bulgarian Foreign Minister in the donor conference, as well as for the contribution that Bulgaria will make. Minister Maliki emphasized that the new government works actively for achieving maximum transparency in the spending of the resources for Gaza. There will be a monitoring mechanism and a follow-up plan of the initiatives to be held for the allocation of resources. According to Minister Maliki, after more than 23 years of negotiations, the Palestinian side has come to new conclusions. Currently Mahmoud Abbas calls for clear time parameters of the negotiations. Similarly, Palestine's draft resolution submitted to the UN Security Council includes clearly fixed date for Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories.
Minister Mitov expressed Bulgaria's support for the efforts for resuming the negotiations as the only option for a lasting peace. He emphasized that Bulgaria as a EU Member State is ready to cooperate, within its abilities, for renewing the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
Minister Mitov and his Algerian counterpart Ramtane Lamamra shared the view that there is a serious trade and economic potential between the two countries. It was agreed that a business forum will be organized in Sofia during the next joint commission on economic cooperation, in order to intensify the business contacts between the two countries.
They also discussed Algeria's initiative for settlement of the crisis in Libya. The Algerian Foreign Minister said that a series of meetings have been held between Libya's neighbouring countries and the agreements reached provide for no individual intervention in Libya. However, outside military intervention is not the solution to the internal problems of the country. The challenges facing Libya are serious and minority groups there should be integrated instead of marginalized because this carries risk of terrorism, the Algerian Foreign Minister said.
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