On the first visit at the Presidential level since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Egypt and Poland, in 1927, President Mubarak arrived Monday in Warsaw on a three-day official visit to Poland. President Mubarak said that he hopes that the visit will give a strong push to cooperation between Egypt, Poland and the East European states in light of Poland's membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Council of the European Union in 2004. Presidents Mubarak and Kaczynski will have tête-à-tête meeting followed by talks at the level of delegations. The Egyptian-Polish summit will focus on regional issues, particularly the situation in the Palestinian territories, efforts to resuscitate the ME peace, conditions in Lebanon and Iraq.

The Polish President said Egypt is a key political and economic partner in Middle East region, underlining the importance of the Egyptian-European relations in the various fields. Warsaw attaches much importance to the relations with Egypt, he said, adding that his talks with Mubarak will tackle cooperation in the economic, commercial and investment domains. He added that Mubarak's visit will further promote bilateral relations in all spheres.

President Mubarak was welcomed at the airport by the Chief of the Chancery of the Polish President, Egypt's ambassador to Poland Fahmy Fayed and the members of the Egyptian embassy in Warsaw. President Mubarak will lay a wreath on the Unknown Soldier monument. Later, the President will meet Polish President Lech Kaczynski. At the economic level, the visit aims at beefing up the volume of trade exchange between the two countries, currently standing at 299 million dollars, and luring more Polish investments to Egypt in all sectors. In the tourism field, the visit aims at increasing number of Polish tourists traveling to Egypt as 350,000 Polish tourists visited Egypt annually.

Al Akhbar
11/3/2008