by WorldTribune Staff, October 5, 2016
In a sign of warming ties between the two nations, the Egyptian and Russian parliaments on Oct. 4 said they were united in their stand against foreign powers who would seek to change Middle East regimes by force.
“We decided that we should rally support among as many world parliaments as possible against intervention in the internal affairs of Middle East countries and reject any attempts aimed at changing regimes by force in this region,” Egypt’s parliament said in a statement.
Citing significant progress in Egyptian-Russian relations in recent years, the two parliaments said they will coordinate during the coming round of meetings of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in Geneva.
The statement said Egypt and Russia have historic relations that go back to the era of late president Gamal Abdel-Nasser.
“We decided that these relations must be further strengthened in the coming period in order to eliminate any obstacles that might stand in their way,” said the statement.
Egyptian parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al said Cairo “highly appreciates” Russian president Vladimir Putin’s support of the June 30 revolution of 2013, which led to the removal of the regime of Mohammed Morsi and the banning of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.
The statement also indicated that the agriculture committees in Egypt and Russia’s parliaments will forge greater contacts in the coming period to help eliminate any obstacles that might stem the flow of Egyptian agricultural exports into the Russian market.
Russian deputy parliament speaker Ilyas Umakhanov said a high-profile Russian delegation will attend celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of parliamentary life in Egypt at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on Oct. 9.
“We also invited the Egyptian parliament to attend the coming meetings of the parliamentary assembly of the newly independent states as an observer,” said Umakhanov, adding that he also asked speaker Abdel-Aal to send a young parliamentary delegation to participate in the 2017 Festival of Youth and Students which will be held in Russia, aiming to host 120,000 young people from 190 worldwide countries.