 |
Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 April 1999 Issue No. 424 
|
||
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
 |
 |
|
|
Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 April 1999 Issue No. 424
|
||
| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
|
|
|
Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Along the Silk Road
By Nevine KhalilAlthough President Mubarak's 10-day tour of Asia was certain to boost Egypt's bilateral economic ties with China, South Korea and Japan, political issues were not ignored under the avalanche of business deals signed during the visit. Talks covered a wide range of global issues, including stalled Middle East peace-making, devastating NATO strikes against Yugoslavia, the suspension of the UN sanctions on Libya, the crippling economic embargo of Iraq, the launching of a North-South dialogue and the restructuring of the UN Security Council.
Mubarak, who began the tour on Monday, will leave China tomorrow for Seoul, the South Korean capital. Accompanied by a high-level delegation, including Prime Minister Kamal El-Ganzouri, five cabinet ministers, businessmen and his chief political adviser, Mubarak will be in Tokyo on Sunday. On his way home, on Tuesday, the president will stop over in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Mubarak's talks in South Korea tomorrow are not expected to touch on Cairo's close military cooperation with Pyongyang, Seoul's arch-enemy to the north. "Our relation with any country is our business and the business of the concerned party," Mubarak's chief political adviser, Osama El-Baz, told Al-Ahram Weekly. El-Baz suggested that Egypt might play a mediating role in easing tensions between the two Koreas. "We have good and close relations with both North Korea and South Korea; therefore, we can play a role, if both parties agree," he said. While saying that "friendly states" should play a mediating role, El-Baz affirmed that "this does not mean that anybody has suggested or requested" Egyptian mediation.
Cairo's efforts in the service of world peace were highlighted on Tuesday when Mubarak was awarded an honourary doctorate in international relations by Beijing University.
The president's five-day stay on the banks of the Yellow River included numerous meetings with China's top officials and members of the business community. It was crowned by the signing of a joint Egyptian-Chinese "strategic" declaration. Hours after Mubarak's arrival on Monday, and after lengthy talks with President Jiang Zemin, the two leaders signed a document which will ensure "long-term, uninterrupted" cooperation between the two countries, El-Baz said.
President and Mrs Mubarak plant a tree at the Beijing University campus
Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan told the Weekly that the joint declaration "will guide future relations between the two countries and will lay down the groundwork for future developments in bilateral ties and propel them forward".
Although parallels can be drawn between this week's Sino-Egyptian declaration and the US-Egyptian dialogue launched last year, the dissimilarities are also obvious. An Egyptian diplomatic source said that, while China and the US are "superpowers with very complicated policies and political systems, relations with Beijing are excellent in comparison to the fluctuating relations between Cairo and Washington." The source told the Weekly that China has "principled policies sympathetic towards the Arabs, but there is a strong Zionist lobby in the US working against Arab interests."
Foreign Minister Tang believes that the declaration "will encourage bilateral relations, especially economic ties". Egypt certainly needs to redress the deficit in trade with China, which amounted to $606.5 million last year. Egypt's exports amounted to $31.7 million, a meagre five per cent of this volume.
In the course of the visit, the Egyptian and Chinese governments signed six agreements, while businessmen signed 16 joint venture agreements.
To further promote economic ties and Chinese investment in Egypt, Mubarak yesterday visited Tianjin, China's third largest port city after Shanghai and Guang Zhou. There, he witnessed the signing of an agreement between the Egyptian-Chinese Company and the Chinese Development Company, marking a watershed in Chinese investment in Egypt. The agreement provides for the construction of a Chinese zone in the industrial zone northeast of the Gulf of Suez.
In the Tokyo talks, Middle East peace-making will feature prominently but the emphasis will be on initiating a dialogue between the North and South. "We want to establish a format for that, and Japan, of course, is very qualified as a principal partner," El-Baz said. He believes that the concept of the dialogue must be well outlined to the industrialised nations of the North "so that no one may mistakenly think that we want a confrontation".
According to El-Baz, Egypt "will not be bargaining on behalf of the Palestinians" on the issue of the declaration of a Palestinian state on the 4 May deadline. Indeed, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will be able to promote his position first-hand within days when he arrives on an Asian tour that will include China and Japan. Beijing will receive Israeli President Ezer Weizman a few days after Arafat's visit to sound out his views on the stalled peace process.
Tang said that his country "uniformly supports the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people's legitimate, national rights". He said Beijing has already recognised a Palestinian state, and that diplomatic missions were exchanged between the two sides. "Arafat will be in China soon," the foreign minister said. "I will discuss the peace process with him, and so will other Chinese officials."
