Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry at the outset of his wider Africa tour on Sunday.
The trip aims to ease Russia’s diplomatic isolation amid the war on Ukraine.
Lavrov was also meeting the secretary general of the Arab League and addressing members of the organization during his one-day trip to Cairo. He is then due to travel to Ethiopia, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, countries which have recently seen strained relations with the West.
The tour comes just one week after US President Joe Biden conducted his first tour to the Middle East. He visited Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Saudi Arabia, where he met with leaders of the Gulf countries, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.
The Russian war on Ukraine has caused a significant divide between Russia and Western countries.
However, most Arab and African countries have refused to take sides, as they share interests with both stakeholders. The fragile economies of countries in Africa and the Middle East have also suffered the most from the war due to skyrocketing oil prices and the food crisis.
Lavrov praises African nations for their stance
Ahead of his tour, Lavrov wrote an article stressing Russia’s keenness on African states’ interests. It was published in top newspapers in Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and the DRC, as well as on the Russian foreign ministry’s website.
In the opinion piece,, Lavrov denied that Russia was to blame for the worldwide food crisis. He said the crisis started when Western countries held on to food supplies during the pandemic and was exacerbated by Western sanctions on Russia.
The Russian foreign minister also said his country “has not stained itself with the bloody crimes of colonialism” and has “sincerely supported Africans in their struggle for liberation from colonial oppression.”
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The diplomat said Russia supports a multipolar world where countries, including African countries, independently stand up to Western pressures. Specifically, Lavrov pointed to African nations not joining in anti-Russsia sanctions despite “unprecedented” pressure.
“Such an independent path deserves deep respect,” Lavrov wrote.
Egypt opposes sanctions against Russia
Egypt was quick to join the countries condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine in a UNGA session shortly after the war started in February. At the same time, Egyptian officials rejected sanctions against Russia.
Since then, the Arab country has tried to strike the balance between its reliance on Western allies such as the US, and its solid ties with Russia.
As the world’s biggest wheat importer, Egypt relied primarily on Russia (and less so on Ukraine) to feed its population of over 100 million.
Before the travel restrictions imposed on Russians due to the war, Egypt also counted on Russian tourists to bring in a big chunk of tourism revenues, a backbone of the Egyptian economy.
Just this week, the long-delayed construction of Egypt’s first nuclear plant was set in motion by the Russian state-owned energy corporation Rosatom.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is in Cairo for talks Sunday with Egyptian officials as his country seeks to break diplomatic isolation and sanctions by the west over its invasion of Ukraine.
Lavrov landed in Cairo late Saturday, the first leg of his Africa trip that will also include stops in Ethiopia, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Russia’s state-run RT.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Foreign Minister Sameh Shukry was holding talks with Lavrov Sunday morning.
The Russian chief diplomat was scheduled to meet later Sunday with the Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit. He will also address the permanent representatives of the pan-Arab organization, RT reported.
Egypt, the Arab World’s most populous country, refused to take sides since the war in Ukraine began in February as it maintains close ties with both Moscow and the west. Egypt is among the world’s largest importers of wheat, with much of that from Russia and Ukraine.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has cultivated a close personal rapport with Russia President Vladimir Putin. Both leaders have strengthened bilateral ties considerably in the past few years.
Lavrov’s visit to Cairo came as Russia’s state-owned atomic energy corporation, Rosatom, began last week the construction of a four-reactor power plant it is building in Egypt.
Uphold Rights to Free Expression at Environmental Summit
Egyptian authorities should ease their grip on civic space and uphold the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly to enable a successful climate summit, known as the COP27, in Egypt, 36 organizations said today.
COP27 brings together state parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change as well as thousands of experts, journalists, and representatives from businesses and non-governmental groups. COP27, to be held in November 2022, is an important opportunity for the international community to meet and discuss ambitious, rights-based climate action.
In an interview with The Associated Press on May 24, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that his government is planning to designate “a facility adjacent to the conference center” in Sharm El-Sheikh, in the Sinai peninsula, where the meeting will be held, where activists can hold protests and voice their opinions. He also said that the government will provide participants “access, as is traditionally done on one day of the negotiations, to the negotiating h[all] itself.”
The organizations are concerned about the implications of Shoukry’s comments on the right to peaceful activism at the COP27. Given existing restrictions on protest and assembly in Egypt that amount to their effective criminalization, the Foreign Minister’s comments imply that the Egyptian authorities will not tolerate protest outside this “government-designated” space.
Under international human rights law and standards, demonstrations should be facilitated as a general rule within “sight and sound” of their target audience. The Egyptian authorities should unconditionally allow peaceful protests and gatherings around the time of COP27, including in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, and other cities.
Egyptian authorities should also end the relentless assault on human rights defenders, civil society organizations, and the independent media. Their tactics include unfounded criminal investigations, arbitrary detention, summons for coercive questioning, threats to close independent organizations, travel bans, and other restrictive measures that risk undermining the ongoing civil society participation needed for a positive outcome of COP27.
Robust and rights-respecting climate action requires the full and meaningful participation of all stakeholders including states, activists, civil society and representatives of Indigenous peoples and groups most vulnerable to the harm of climate change. Activists play an important role in the global climate debate by providing relevant information to policymakers and the media. And nongovernmental groups can only carry out their important work where they can effectively exercise their right to freedom of assembly.
International and Egyptian civil society groups fear that the restrictions imposed by the Egyptian authorities would hinder the full and meaningful participation of activists, human rights defenders, civil society, and Indigenous peoples representatives at COP27. Concerns are heightened by the Egyptian authorities abysmal record of cracking down on civil society organizations and punishing human rights activism and independent journalism.
Civil society organizations and the UN human rights mechanisms have long documented the Egyptian authorities’ crackdown on freedom of peaceful assembly. In 2013, the authorities passed Law No. 107/2013 on Organizing the Right to Public Meetings, Processions and Peaceful Protests, which grants security forces free rein to ban protests and to use unnecessary and excessive force against peaceful protesters.
The authorities have used this law, in addition to the draconian colonial era Law No.10/1914 on assemblies, to prosecute thousands of peaceful protesters in grossly unfair mass trials. Additionally, security forces have consistently used unlawful force, sometimes lethal, and mass arrests to disperse protests. No security or military official has been brought to justice for the deaths of hundreds of people during the dispersal of sit-ins in Rabaa al-Adawiya and al-Nahda squares in Greater Cairo on 14 August 2013.
The crackdown sent a chilling message across Egypt, instilling fear and deterring people from exercising their right to peaceful assembly. The rare protests that have taken place in recent years have been met again with unlawful use of force and mass arrests, including the September 2019 and September 2020 anti-government protests. Security forced rounded up thousands of protesters, activists, human rights defenders, lawyers, and bystanders, including children, some of whom were subject to enforced disappearance.
The Egyptian authorities have equally shown little tolerance even toward protests not directed at or critical of the authorities. In November 2020, Egyptian authorities arbitrarily arrested and detained 70 Sudanese migrants and refugees engaged in a peaceful protest following the killing of a Sudanese child by an Egyptian man. Police beat protesters, using racial and xenophobic slurs, witnesses said. In December 2021 and January 2022, Egyptian security forces detained at least 30 Sudanese activists who organized protests at the Cairo headquarters of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and subjected them to forced labour and beatings.
The Egyptian authorities should immediately and unconditionally release anyone arbitrarily detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their human rights or for their religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation. The authorities should also amend legislation so that it is in line with Egypt’s obligations under international law, including by repealing or substantially amending laws that unduly restrict and criminalize the exercise of human rights, including Law No.107/2013 on protests, Law No.10/1914 on assemblies, and the 2019 NGO law.
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The authorities should pledge to uphold the right to freedom of peaceful assembly at all times, including during international events, and refrain from unduly limiting protests to a specific designated area. UN member states, particularly those attending COP27, should urge the Egyptian authorities to end limitations on freedom of assembly, association, and expression and take other meaningful steps to address concerns by civil society and ensure their safe and meaningful participation that can contribute to a successful COP27.
Signatories:
Amnesty International
Association of Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE)
Cairo Institute for Human Rights (CIHRS)
Committee for Justice (CFJ)
Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms (ECRF)
President Abdel Fattah El Sisi has congratulated the Egyptian national team on claiming their eighth title of the African Men’s Handball Championship, hosted by Egypt.
In a cable of greetings to the team, Sisi hailed as “heroic” the performance shown by the Pharaohs throughout the tournament.
The president also praised the successive achievements made by the national team in different international competitions.
Addis Abeba — Following a meeting today between President Joe Biden and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah Al Sisi in Jeddah in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the two leaders issued a joint statement in which the U.S. and Egypt discussed, among others, to promote “regional stability.”
One of the issues the two leaders discussed is the issue of Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
“President Biden reiterated U.S. support for Egypt’s water security and to forging a diplomatic resolution that would achieve the interests of all parties and contribute to a more peaceful and prosperous region,” the statement said.
In June this year, Ethiopia objected a similar stance taken by the European Union expressing the block’s support to “Egypt’s water security”.
“The European Union should reconsider its biased stance on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam,” Ambassador Dina Mufti, the spokesperson of the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), told local media on 23 June.
It is recalled that following the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting held on 20 June, the EU and Egypt released a joint statement highlighting the importance of “reaching a mutually acceptable and binding agreement on the filling and operations of the GERD.”
But Ethiopia denounced the statement as “senseless and biased”, and called upon the EU to reconsider its stance.
Similarly, the U.S.-Egypt joint statement said that “the two leaders reiterated the imperative of concluding an agreement on the filling and operation of the GERD without further delay as stipulated in the Statement of the President of the United Nations Security Council dated September 15, 2021, and in accordance with international law.”
Foreign Minister and President-Designate of COP27 Sameh Shoukry has made a phone call with Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, to review Egypt’s vision and goals on the 27th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC).
The call was part of current consultations with all countries and parties concerned on preparations for COP27, to be hosted by Egypt in the Red Sea city of Sharm El-Sheikh in November, said Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry Ahmed Hafez.
The minister lauded vital roles played by the UK at COP26, praising efforts exerted by Prince Charles to promote global climate action, added Hafez.
Shoukry said Egypt is looking forward to work with Prince Charles in the coming period to increase the participation of the private sector in global efforts to face climate changes through climate change-linked initiatives, said the spokesman.
Egypt’s Men handball national team have reached the 2023 World Championship and the semi-finals of the 2022 African Championship following an easy victory over Algeria.
The 2022 and 2024 African Men’s Handball Championships were originally planned to take place in Morocco and Algeria, but CAHB made the decision to ban both countries from organizing the prestigious tournament due to a lack of sportsmanship.
Following the ban, the two competitions were moved to Egypt, with the 2022 edition starting from July 11 until July 18 in the 6th of October City.
Egypt were placed in group A alongside Morocco and Cameroon, and following two easy wins, the Pharaohs qualified for the quarter-finals alongside their North African neighbors.
In the quarter-finals, Egypt found itself against another North African country, this time Algeria, with the game taking place on Friday night.
The Pharaohs had no problems at all against the seven-time African champions, ending the first-half 20-8 ahead, before continuing their dominance in the second-half, winning the tie 34-19.
The win have secured Egypt a place in the 2023 World Men’s Handball Championship in Poland and Sweden as well as a spot in the semi-finals against Tunisia.
The Eagles of Carthage had won Group C ahead of Cape Verde and Nigeria, before coming up against DR Congo in the quarter-finals, the game which they 40-34 after overtime.
Tunisia have won the competition on 10 different occasions and have reached the final of the last 10 editions, losing the 2020 final to Egypt in Radès.
Meanwhile, Morocco and Cape Verde overcame Guinea and Angola respectively and will face each other in the second tie of the semi-finals.
Both the semi-finals games will take place on Saturday, July 16 at the Hassan Moustafa Sports Hall, the 6th of October.
