With its eye on a Security Council seat, Egypt tries to woo other developing states. Magda El-Ghitany reports Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit began a three-leg South American tour this week, his stops in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile being the first high-level visit by a senior Egyptian official to South America in over a decade. Abul-Gheit's tour will follow his participation -- as head of the Egyptian delegation -- in the first ever Arab-South American summit, which opened Monday in Brazil, bringing together representatives of the 22 Arab League member states and 12 South American countries. The foreign minister's South American trip must also be seen in light of Abul-Gheit's recent attempts to solidify Egyptian ties in both Africa and Asia. Abul-Gheit has taken three African trips in less than a year, and Egypt has hosted several major African conferences recently, in addition to participating in last month's Afro-Asian summit. While some have cheered this attempt to revive Egyptian ties with the developing world, others insist that much more needs to be done -- especially if the larger goal involves helping Egypt's chances of winning a seat on a reformed UN Security Council. Abul-Gheit's South American tour will explore potential economic and cultural cooperation, as well as lobby for a Security Council seat, which is "always on the foreign minister's agenda these days", said a senior Foreign Ministry official who asked for anonymity. "Egypt's pursuit of a Security Council seat has definitely affected the overall structure of [our] foreign policy agenda," said Al-Ahram Political and Strategic Studies Centre Director Abdel-Moneim Said. According to Mustafa El-Feki, head of the People's Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee, Egypt is particularly concentrating on its "leading role in the African" continent on whose behalf it wishes to be nominated for the seat. There has certainly been a lot of backstage effort in this regard. Egypt is trying to "mobilise as much international support as possible", Said said, so that if the UN's reform plans come to fruition, Egypt's chances of being voted into the council are greater. By highlighting the key role it is playing in resolving major regional issues like the Arab- Israeli conflict and the political turbulence in Sudan, Egypt hopes to impress its neighbours with its qualifications. Egypt is a key Third World country with "African, Arab, and Islamic roots", said Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs head Abdel- Raouf El-Ridi; as such, it is the most qualified to earn a UN Security Council seat. Attempts have also been made to nurture the support of the 22 Arab League member states, especially during the recent Arab League summit in Algiers. At the same time, diplomats agreed, Cairo is fully cognizant that getting the UN Security Council nod will depend on more than just a few foreign policy tactics. All eyes would also be on Egypt's democratic reform process. Stimulating a "genuine democratic atmosphere and domestic harmony between all political trends are essential preconditions for Egypt's reaching the seat," Said said, since a member of the Security Council should obviously be committed to "values adopted by the international community, especially in relation to democracy and freedom." Meanwhile, Egyptian officials are also applying maximum realism. They say the competition is tough and -- as Abul-Gheit himself put it -- the road ahead "is a long one that involves an extremely complicated process. It would be hard to say," he said, "who will get what, or what might happen next."
