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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 Sep. - 6 Oct. 1999 Issue No. 449 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 30 Sep. - 6 Oct. 1999 Issue No. 449
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Visiting New York to take part in the UN General Assembly session, Foreign Minister Amr Moussa also acted to promote the national economy. Dina Ezzat reviews Moussa's agenda, as well as his assembly speech
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Prioritising the economy
The promotion of the national economy has come to occupy an increasingly prominent place on Egypt's foreign policy agenda over the past few years. Indeed, the discourse of Egyptian diplomacy is no longer dominated by regional peace-making and inter-Arab ties; it also aims at establishing new footholds for the Egyptian economy in foreign markets and attracting greater investments to Egypt.
Last week, while in New York to head Egypt's delegation to the annual UN General Assembly session, Foreign Minister Amr Moussa appeared to give as much attention to economic, as to political concerns.
In one of several economy-oriented functions, Moussa was guest speaker at the annual dinner of the International Capital Markets Advisory Committee for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The foreign minister used the opportunity to speak at length about the national economy. His audience included a high-powered group of US financiers, such as Richard Grasso, CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, David Komansky, CEO of Merrill Lynch & Co and, of course, William McDounough, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The Egyptian economy's priorities were the topic of Moussa's speech to these world economy gurus. "In Egypt, our vision is clear. We are determined to make economic reform, liberalisation and private sector leadership the foundations of Egypt's economic future," Moussa said.
Accordingly, Moussa explained, Egypt is keen on promoting exports, attracting foreign direct investments, ''but not the hit-and-run type", strengthening institutional infrastructure, decreasing dependency on oil and enhancing private sector responsibility.
Figures on Egypt's reduction of the public sector's share of GDP by more than 40 per cent and increase of the private sector's share to reach almost 70 per cent of GDP were the kind of facts to which participants in the dinner were treated as indicative of the soundness of Egypt's economic reform programme.
Moreover, as he has recently been doing in almost all his speeches, the foreign minister made a point of listing a handful of economic facts: since 1991, Egypt's GDP per capita has increased by 88 per cent, the country's foreign deficit has dropped by 64 per cent, the number of companies in the private sector has increased by an average of 50 per cent, annual growth is six per cent, inflation is down to 3.6 per cent of GDP, the budget deficit is one per cent and currency reserves stand at around $17 billion.
In addition, Moussa emphasised the multiple opportunities offered to investors. Egypt, he said, is "pursuing progressive trade agreements, both regionally and globally." The breakdown is a partnership with the European Union (EU) that should be signed in the near future, Egypt joining the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), a strong affiliation to a potential Arab Free Trade Area and an Egyptian-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement.
Besides this emphasis on the economy, the New York trip maintained its high political profile. The foreign minister held meetings with around 50 of his counterparts to discuss a wide range of issues, spanning the Indo-Pakistani conflict to Arab-Israeli peace-making.
The most interesting of these meetings was a gathering hosted by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for Israel's Foreign Minister David Levy and several of his Arab counterparts, as well as some European foreign ministers directly interested in the Middle East. This meeting, which was not attended by the foreign ministers of Syria and Lebanon, touched on the possibility of resuming Middle East multilateral talks.
It was this issue that revived signs of Egyptian-US disagreement over the best way to address peace-making between Arabs and Israelis. Egypt, according to Moussa, believes that multilateral talks should only be resumed after steady, and fairly sustained, progress is made on the Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese tracks. The US, according to Albright, disagrees. Washington wants these talks resumed sooner rather than later.
Managing the differences
As the Middle East seems to be entering a phase in which the Arab-Israeli conflict is nearing a settlement, while inter-Arab differences persist, Egypt is making a point of stressing some regional policies that may not necessarily correspond to US plans.Egypt's speech before the annual session of the UN General Assembly may serve as a good indicator in this connection.
"The end of a century or a millennium does not end or eliminate the existing problems," Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said before addressing several regional issues, including the future of Arab-Israeli relations, Sudan and Iraq.
"In the Middle East, the peace process, which is of central importance for the restoration of stability and the establishment of a comprehensive peace throughout the region, is now heading towards a new and positive stage. It is our hope that this will lead to a comprehensive peaceful settlement that will establish the Palestinian state, put an end to the occupation of the Syrian and Lebanese territories and ensure security for all," said the foreign minister.
This cautious tone apparently was not pleasing to the Americans, who have been telling Egypt that the time has come to show greater warmth towards Israel and encourage other Arab countries to be more forthcoming. But this does not seem to be something that Cairo is ready for -- at least not yet.
Moussa was quick to add that a settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict was not the only requirement in the Middle East. "There are other problems," he emphasised.
The problems he listed were all closely associated to current US diplomatic activities in the region: the Western Sahara in North Africa, The islands of the Emirates in the Gulf, and the question of Sudan.
Sudan, said Moussa, "is high on the list of priorities of Egyptian diplomacy. For two years now, we have been making intensive efforts and contacts with both the Sudanese government and the opposition to achieve a comprehensive national reconciliation and preserve the unity of that brotherly country. We have been coordinating with Libya, members of the Inter-Governmental Association for Development [IGAD] and the forum of the partners of IGAD to ensure that all the efforts made in this regard are made in a concerted manner," he said.
Cairo has repeatedly told the United States that it is determined to forge ahead with a joint Egyptian-Libyan effort for promoting national unity in Sudan, thereby foiling all plans aimed at partitioning the country.
The United States has not welcomed the Egyptian effort. In fact, Washington has told Cairo that it is not happy with the inclusion of Libya. Moreover, the United States appointed an envoy for Sudan without consulting Egypt -- or Sudan for that matter. And the guidelines of this envoy's mission ignore the Egyptian-Libyan initiative.
Some informed Sudanese sources have accused the United States of encouraging factions of the Cairo-based Sudanese opposition to give the go-ahead to the sabotage of a Sudanese oil pipeline in order to abort the Egyptian-Sudanese dialogue and, thereby, foil the initiative for a reconciliation.
An equally sensitive issue on the agenda of Egyptian-US differences was Iraq.
"The situation of Iraq raises numerous questions," Moussa said. "The matter does not have a bearing on the government of Iraq alone. Rather, it pertains to the Iraqi people, their plight and the suffering of their children. An objective and positive review of the situation of this important brotherly country has become necessary. This review should proceed from the premise that there are no ever-lasting sanctions, and that peoples have the right to move from the errors of the past towards the bright horizons of the future. In so doing, they must fully abide by the accepted rules of international legality like all other peoples."
The US mission in New York could not have missed that what Moussa proposed on Iraq is in essence significantly different from what was proposed on the same issue by US President Bill Clinton in his speech before the UN General Assembly.
Nor could the US mission have missed Moussa's implicit criticism of US policy on Iraq. The mistake of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the foreign minister said, "cannot be corrected by a policy which would lead to the collapse of an entire society or cause a whole country to implode."
Affirming Egypt's intention to stick to its policy on Iraq, the foreign minister said Cairo "is following closely the current efforts aimed at the suspension -- by the Security Council -- of the sanctions, within an understanding with the Iraqi government and under the council's supervision. This should be the first step towards the lifting of the sanctions in accordance with paragraph 22 of Resolution 687, whose paragraphs ought to be implemented in full."
And, in the context of disarmament, Moussa chose to give prominence to a collective nuclear non-proliferation initiative to which Egypt is party and about which the United States has been apprehensive: the New Agenda Coalition [NAC]. Egypt is working on this effort with South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Ireland, Sweden and New Zealand. The simple objective of this alliance is to promote non-proliferation and de-nuclearisation, even of the five big powers. US opposition to this initiative has been going on for a year.
In 1998, as Moussa noted in his speech, the NAC "tabled a resolution which was adopted by the General Assembly by a large majority, calling for the adoption of serious and concrete steps in this regard." The members of the NAC, he affirmed, "will continue with their efforts."
As for nuclear proliferation and non-proliferation in the Middle East, Moussa said: "I have repeatedly stated that the elimination of weapons of mass destruction, which is the optimum way to ensure the security of the Middle East region as a whole, can only be achieved within a comprehensive framework applicable to all without exception or discrimination... In this regard, all the states of the Middle East, with the sole exception of Israel, have acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty [NPT] and the international regime for the inspection of nuclear facilities. This constitutes a source of constant tension. It negates to a large degree the effectiveness of the international instruments of non-proliferation and arms control. It will lead to an arms race."
Again, this is not an argument for which the United States has traditionally shown much understanding. The United States, in fact, has never made a secret of its continuous efforts to ensure Israel's military supremacy. Nor has it made a secret of its serious opposition to the attempts of the countries of the region, including Egypt, to expand their military capabilities away from close coordination with Washington.
In other words, while Egypt will continue to work on improving ties with the United States, differences between the two countries are likely to surface more conspicuously.
