The Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sameh Shoukry met on Thursday with members of the editorial board of the New York Times in his endeavor to meet with a number of American print or visual media. Shoukri addressed a number of issues about the current political, economic, and social developments in Egypt, and the importance of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's first meeting with US President Barack Obama, according to a foreign ministry statement on Friday. Shoukry reaffirmed the determination of the Egyptian government to build a modern democratic state to achieve the aspirations of the Egyptian people, and that Al-Sisi and Obama have agreed in their meeting on the importance of strategic US-Egyptian relations. Shoukry also discussed Egypt's views on regional and international issues, foremost the issue of terrorism and the importance of dealing with it in a comprehensive framework. He also talked about the Egyptian efforts to stabilise the truce between the Palestinian and Israeli sides and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, as well as the latest developments in Libya, Iraq and Syria, and Egypt's vision to help these countries out of their current crises. Shoukry participated on Wednesday evening in the second Conference of the Egyptian-American Political Action Committee, which targets the development of Egyptian-US relations and the defence of Egyptian interests in the United States. The minister welcomed the efforts undertaken by the committee to develop relations between both countrie. He stressed the importance of the committee's communication with decision-making institutions in the US to explain the democratic, economic and social developments in Egypt after the 30 June 2013 uprising, which led to the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi.
