Dina Ezzat explores the potential for closer ties with old friends in Eastern Europe The archives of Al-Ahram offer few cuttings dealing with Egypt's bilateral relations with Romania and Bulgaria. The handful of articles in the files underscore the neglect with which Egypt, and both Romania and Bulgaria, have treated their once thriving relations, whose heyday began in the 1950s and continued for the best part of two decades. Both countries, already NATO members for three years, have now joined the EU. They are changes that offer economic, political and cultural opportunities that Cairo could well develop with Bucharest and Sofia, giving a new lease of life to ties between the three. Romanian President Tarian Basescu arrived in Cairo yesterday for a two-day visit during which he met President Hosni Mubarak, Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and a host of senior officials and leading businessmen. Basescu's visit also includes talks with Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa, and meetings with the representatives of the League's member states. According to the press release issued by the Romanian president's office, the visit presents "an opportunity for reiterating the importance of Romania's ties... with Egypt, an important actor in the Middle East and North Africa and a traditional partner". Basescu was accompanied by over 30 businessmen as well as a number of Romanian journalists. According to statements made yesterday by Presidential Spokesman Suliman Awad following talks between Mubarak and Basescu, the visit offered an opportunity for an exchange of views on political developments in the Middle East and especially on Iraq, where Romania has troops deployed as part of the international forces. Developments in the Balkans were also discussed. But above all, the visit allowed for the signing of agreements to upgrade bilateral cooperation in view of Romania's new membership of the European Union. "The visit is intended to give a push to Romania's relations with Egypt on all fronts, and judging by developments in bilateral relations since President Mubarak's last visit to Bucharest in 2004, President Basescu's visit to Cairo could well open new vistas of cooperation," said Fawzy Gohar, Egypt's ambassador in Bucharest. Mubarak's visits to Romania in 2001 and 2004 helped the volume of trade between the two countries jump from just a few million dollars to $369 million last year. Basescu's return visit may help that figure double in the next five years. Energy security will be central to the talks between Romanian and Bulgarian officials and their Egyptian counterparts. Both Bucharest and Sofia are hoping to increase imports of natural gas from Egypt and other gas-rich Arab countries. Alarmed by last year's fall-out between Russia and some of its former satellite states over winter gas supplies, both countries are keen to avoid similar crises. Developing a gas pipeline is expected to top the agenda during the Romanian president's talks in Cairo this week, and is likely to be accorded the same importance when the Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev visits later this year. "Egypt is very keen to upgrade and improve its relations and to adjust all binding agreements with both Romania and Bulgaria in view of their new status as members of the European Union," Awad stressed yesterday. For its part, Cairo hopes that closer relations with the newest, and most eastern, members of the European Union will help it upgrade overall cooperation with the EU, Egypt's largest economic partner. "Regionalism [especially in economic relations] is one way to avoid the negative impact of globalisation," says El-Sayed Yassin, prominent sociologist and analyst. While neither Romania nor Bulgaria are particularly powerful within the EU they still, says Yassin, "wield two votes that must be taken into consideration". Romania and Bulgaria know that the closer their ties with Egypt the easier the access will become to the rest of the Middle East and Africa. In statements made during a meeting with Arab diplomats in Sofia, late last month, Stanishev stressed Bulgaria's interest to harness its new status as an EU member to further cooperation with the Arab world and Africa. Egypt would also like to secure closer coordination with the two NATO and EU members on issues related to the Middle East, especially the Arab-Israeli struggle, in the UN. The revival of cultural cooperation and exchange of tourism are also issues of interest. According to Gohar, and Sherif Ismail, deputy chief of Egypt's diplomatic mission in Sofia, an exhibition of Pharaonic artefacts in Bulgaria could help increase the growing flow of Bulgarian tourists to Egypt and that could help establish direct flights between the two countries. Direct flights are seen as an essential component in the upgrading of business as well as political ties. Egyptian diplomats say Cairo is keen to make more time and invest more effort in reviving its relations with Eastern Europe. This year, they say, will be particular busy with exchanges on that front. Yassin believes countries that have successfully transformed from totalitarian regimes into democracies, and from central to free market economies, have valuable experiences that they can pass on to Egypt as it attempts its own democratic and economic transformation, for which reason, he argues, exchanges should not be confined to governments but also include concerned members of the civil society.
