Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met on Wednesday with Iraq's Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein in Cairo, where the Iraqi minister expressed Baghdad's keenness to continue "intensive coordination and consultation" with Cairo on all levels, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement. Such keenness, the statement quoted Hussein as saying, comes in light of the strong relations and ties that bind the two countries, and also the importance and centrality of the Egyptian role in the region in a way that contributes to facing the common challenges that the Arab nation is going through. Egypt's presidential spokesman Bassam Rady said in the statement that El-Sisi expressed Egypt's pride in its historic relations with Iraq, and the keenness to strengthen its Arab national role. El-Sisi also stressed on providing full support to the Iraqi people in all fields, whether on the bilateral level or through the tripartite cooperation mechanism with Jordan, Rady said. This, El-Sisi says, comes within the framework of Egypt's policy based on rational, balanced principles and solid moral constants aimed at achieving stability, progress and prosperity for all. In August 2020, during their third trilateral summit, El-Sisi, Jordan's King Abdullah II and Iraq's Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi addressed enhancing cooperation in all fields, Rady said, especially in energy, power linkage, infrastructure and food. The three leaders urged fostering trilateral cooperation in terms of the economy, trade and investment with the aim of establishing strategic integration between Egypt, Jordan and Iraq. Rady added that the meeting also witnessed a review of the political and security situation in the region and the challenges in this regard, and El-Sisi and Hussein agreed to continue consultations between the two countries to restore security and stability. They also discussed bilateral relations between the two countries, as well as ways to enhance areas of economic, commercial and investment cooperation, in addition to following up on the implementation of projects emanating from the tripartite cooperation mechanism with Jordan, Rady noted. The Egyptian president concluded Wednesday's meeting by asking Hussein to convey greetings to Iraqi President Barham Salih and Prime Minister Al-Kadhimi, the statement said.
