NEW YORK, Sept 25, 2018 – President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has affirmed Egypt's keenness to foster and consolidate its distinguished partnership with the United States. President Sisi was speaking during a meeting he had with US President Donald Trump Monday evening on the sidelines of his participation in the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), according to Presidency Spokesman Ambassador Bassam Radi. The US president welcomed Sisi to New York, stressing the interest of the Trump Administration in strengthening and advancing its strategic relations with Egypt and activating co-operation between the two countries, Ambassador Radi said. Trump also expressed his hope to augment coordination and consultation with Egypt on Middle East issues and means of reaching a settlement to crises in the region in the light of Egypt's central regional role and its desire to contribute to achieving stability and security for the Middle East countries. During the meeting, President Sisi asserted Egypt's keenness on boosting the special relationship and partnership between Cairo and Washington. President Sisi affirmed that Egypt looked forward to further coordination and consultation with the United States on various regional issues, including terrorism which he described as the greatest threat to the stability of the region and the whole world. Trump also praised Egypt's firm and successful efforts to combat terrorism and described it as one of the leading countries fighting this heinous phenomenon. The US president affirmed that Egypt is considered a pivotal partner of the US in the war on terrorism, expressing his country's full support for Egyptian efforts to combat terrorism and extremism in the entire region. President Sisi stressed the importance of sustaining Egyptian-US co-operation to fight against terrorist organisations and eliminate terrorism by cutting off its funding sources, stopping arms supplies and support to terrorists and preventing them from having safe havens, the spokesman said. President Sisi reviewed Egypt's efforts to combat terrorism from the military, security and intellectual perspectives, he added. The meeting dealt with different aspects of bilateral co-operation between Egypt and the United States, especially with regards to economic domain. Presidents Sisi and Trump also discussed increasing US investments in the Egyptian market, the progress achieved by Egypt in implementing its economic reform programme and creating an investment-friendly climate in addition to working on doubling trade volume between Cairo and Washington, Ambassador Radi said in his roundup of the meeting. US President Trump praised the successful steps and measures taken by Egypt to reinvigorate the Egyptian economy and increase its competitiveness globally. He affirmed his country's keenness to boost its joint investments with Egypt. The two presidents also discussed a number of regional issues, especially the situation in Libya, Syria and Yemen, as well as the Palestinian issue and means of reviving the peace process. President Sisi stressed, during the meeting, Egypt's firm stance in support of reaching a just and comprehensive solution that guarantees the rights of the Palestinian people and readiness to co-operate with the US to revive the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. President Sisi has said he is honoured to meet US President Donald Trump in New York. Sisi said the meeting reflected the depth of the Egyptian-US strategic relations. "It is such an honour to meet a great personality such as US President Donald Trump, who made unique changes to policies of the US," Sisi tweeted on Tuesday. Trump for his part expressed pleasure over meeting with President Sisi on the sidelines of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly. "It was my great honour to welcome President Sisi of Egypt to the United States this afternoon, in New York," Trump said in a tweet on Tuesday. President Sisi had a series of meetings earlier in the day on the sidelines of his participation in the 73rd session of UNGA that included a meeting with International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde who lauded Egypt's economic reform efforts over the last period and the bold steps and reforms the government has made to push the development process forward. President Sisi also attended a dinner banquet hosted by the New York-based Business Council for International Understanding (BCIU), which is a not-for-profit, non-governmental, non-partisan organisation that encourages dialogue between political leaders and business communities around the world. In the course of the business dinner, BCIU chief Peter Tichansky welcomed President Sisi's visit to New York to attend annual meetings of the UN General Assembly, expressing happiness to meet with him again and praising Egypt's successful experience in economic reform, stressing the council's desire to continue supporting economic co-operation between Egypt and the United States in different areas, Spokesman Radi said. Also, President Sisi conferred with his Lebanese counterpart Michel Aoun on means of boosting relations between the two nations, the latest developments in the Middle East and the vision of both on ways to end pain and sufferings of peoples in conflict-hit sisterly Arab countries. In a related development, President Sisi held a series of meetings with world leaders that included talks with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Jordanian King Abdullah. President Sisi's talks with Mr Guterres and King Abdullah focused on a host of regional and international issues of mutual concern as well as the means of enhancing co-operation ties between Egypt and the UN and Jordan, the presidency spokesman said.
