Magda El-Ghitany reports on Egypt's latest diplomatic efforts to strengthen ties with Nile Basin nations Back in Cairo on Tuesday after a three-leg tour of the Nile Basin countries of Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia, Foreign Minister said the mission successfully managed to warm up Egypt's relations with its Nile-side neighbours. The report Abul-Gheit will soon be presenting to President Hosni Mubarak will most likely convey messages from the heads of states of Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia expressing their "keenness to intensify relations" with Egypt. The foreign minister said the three African leaders also expressed an interest in visiting Cairo in the near future for talks with Mubarak. Abul-Gheit's tour was part of an aggressive Egyptian diplomatic effort to accelerate rapport with African neighbours and friends. Foreign Ministry officials said Cairo was working hard to widen the scope of Egyptian-African economic and trade relations. Abul-Gheit and the top African officials he met also discussed the potential for closer cooperation on water resources. In Kampala, the Ugandan capital, the minister said Cairo was willing to work with Kampala, Dar Al-Salam and Addis Ababa to secure an adequate water sharing arrangement within the legal framework established by the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI). The NBI, he said, provides the required legal framework that could help strengthen future ties between all 10 Nile Basin states -- Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda. As long as they followed the right legal and accepted framework, Abul-Gheit said, Egypt and the other Nile Basin states did not need to obstruct each other's water development plans. Diplomatic sources familiar with the Egypt-Africa file told Al-Ahram Weekly that Egypt's previous demand that Nile Basin countries must secure an Egyptian green light for the implementation of water development projects, including the construction of dams and water-generated energy, should be handled within friendly and accepted diplomatic and legal frameworks. The African tour also reaped fruits as far as the economic and trade fronts are concerned. Abul-Gheit discussed, with his Ugandan interlocutors, preparations for next year's convocation of the joint Ugandan-Egyptian commission. The commission, which will be hosted by Kampala, will allow officials and entrepreneurs on both sides to agree on concrete steps to boost bilateral trade exchange. "We are doing every possible effort to open the doors of Africa for Egyptian businessmen, and I think there have been some good success stories, but there is definitely room for more success stories to be made," Abul-Gheit said shortly before embarking on his tour. Along with a list of bilateral issues that included water resources cooperation, increased economic and trade cooperation and a higher level of diplomatic cooperation, Abul- Gheit's talks also featured discussions of other key developments in Africa, including peace efforts in Sudan, the unstable situation in Burundi and its impact on the security and stability of the Great Lakes area, and military and political disturbances in the Cote d'Ivoire. These and other political and economic developments were picked up on a more continent-wide scale during the convocation of the African Union foreign ministers meeting in Addis Ababa. The trip was Abul-Gheit's third African tour since he took office in mid-July. The foreign minister's diplomatic initiative towards Africa aims to restore the glory days of Egyptian-African cooperation, in the 1950s and 1960s, when Egypt played a pivotal role in helping African states gain their independence, and also played host to the very first summit of the African Union Organisation. Back home, Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif attended the opening session of a conference about the "Way to Establish Economic Relations with Africa" that took place at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Nazif emphasised Egypt's growing interest in establishing closer and more cooperative relations with Africa, which would also positively reflect on Egypt's industry, since the 53 African nations, with a population of around 860 million, could easily constitute a huge market for Egyptian products. Egyptian officials admit that a declining rapport between Egypt and Africa has had a toll on the country's continental status. Egypt's bitter loss to South Africa in the bid to host the 2010 football World Cup and its equally painful failure to win African support for its offer to host the headquarters of the African Union served as a warning bell for Egyptian diplomacy. Today, Cairo is hoping that its efforts on the African front will boost its attempt to win a permanent African seat in the UN Security Council, if the anticipated reforms make such a seat available.
