“The Mixed Committee for Economic Cooperation between Egypt and Serbia, led by Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dacic, and Foreign Minister Shukri from Egypt, will meet in Cairo for the first time in 10 years, which is an important step towards bringing diplomatic relations to a worthy level. The other thing I would like to mention is that the Serbian Chamber of Commerce nominated its own, Serbian side of this committee, and the Egyptian foreign affairs is due to end, so that a committee meeting can be organized. This was signed in 2005, so after 14 years we will finally have a joint business committee. Also, last week we had a visit to a large agricultural delegation for the first time, and we had the honor and pleasure of meeting Minister of Agriculture Branislav Nedimovic. A number of meetings were held where it was agreed that the two countries would exchange crops and goods they produce. From Serbia, of course, there is wheat and corn, while from Egypt we have citrus, tomato, potato, onion, etc. These economic and commercial activities provide a solid basis for diplomatic relations, and I expect that after the joint committee in March in Cairo, there will be many more concrete steps that we will be able to do in the future, “said Ambassador Amr Aljowaily for Radio Belgrade 2.
Egypt – an honorary guest of the Book Fair this year and The Tourism Fair next, in 2020
Speaking of the participation of Egypt at the Belgrade Tourism Fair that is just beginning, Amr Aljowaily highlighted significantly better working conditions than last year. “The conditions at the Fair are considerably better than last year, when we had a small stand of about 28m2, while this year we have 290m2. But more importantly, this is the first time I’ve said this, we got the call to be an honorary guest at the next Tourism Fair, 2020 “.
Two Egyptian films will be screened for the first time at this year’s Fest
“The Egyptian film industry is the largest film industry in all of Africa and the Middle East, and is probably the oldest industry outside Europe. We are glad that the Belgrade Film Festival accepted to cooperate with us and to show two Egyptian films representing two different era, two different epochs. The first film, Imigrant, is a classic film directed by the most famous Arabic director, the late Yusuf Shahin. The interest of this film is that the story is relatively modern, but when watching a movie it seems like it was filmed 1,000 years ago. The second film is a more modern story, called Diamond Dust in which one of the main roles is the actress of Serbian origin, whose mother is a Serb, and the interesting thing is that the author of this film Ahmad Murad, the writer of the Blue Elephant, whose audience had the opportunity to seen last year at the National Theater in Belgrade. ”
An exhibition of Egyptian artifacts from collections of Serbian museums will be opened in June at the Museum of African Art in Belgrade
“A week ago, Egypt was given the role of holding the presidency of the African Union, and in the next year, it will represent the organization of the African Union with all the diverse activities. We are extremely pleased that the Museum of African Art in Belgrade, which is the only museum in Africa in Eastern and Southern Europe, has decided to collect all Egyptian artifacts and antiques from seven museums all over Serbia in one place and present them at the exhibition that will be opened at the end of June. This coincides with the preparations for the opening of the largest museum in the world, the Great Egyptian Museum in Giza, which will present the largest collection of objects from the Tutankhamun period, so that the visitor can feel that this ancient civilization lived, and we also hope for cooperation between the Museum of African Art in Belgrade and museums in Egypt, including the Great Egyptian Museum. We are also pleased that this year, in March this year, Egypt will participate for the first time in the international archeological film in Belgrade. We have provided two films, and this again tells us that culture is a mixture of cinema, archeology and various types of art, and we are pleased that this will all be presented together. ”
For the first time after 13 years, Er Serbia will open a direct flight to Cairo, June 4th
“So far, about 90% of tourists from Serbia went to the Red Sea for vacation. Two things will change from now: even the governorate of the Red Sea, known for its beautiful beaches and marine life, also has a very important cultural aspect: the two oldest monasteries in the world, the monastery of Saint Anthony and the monastery of Saint Paul, and for the first time this year we had a delegation from Serbia who visited these two monasteries. So you can go at the same time to enjoy the sea and vacation, as well as to discover where the whole idea of the clergy fosters, to combine both vacation and cultural experience. But another thing that will change this year is that on June 4, after 13 years, Serbia will again open a direct flight from Belgrade to Cairo, so that tourists will have a chance to go to Cairo and discover antiques and cultural aspects of tourism , to see the pyramids in Giza, the Sphinx, but also the Coptic and Islamic Cairo and the Great Egyptian Museum, so that we will have two important changes: the Red Sea tourism and a direct flight from Belgrade to Cairo and I’m glad that these changes are taking place exactly this year”.
About diplomatic relations that last 111 years
“The name of Serbia has changed over the years, and the name of Egypt has changed over the past 111 years as well. For example, we were the Arab Republic, the Federation, the Kingdom of Egypt, and now we are the Arab Republic of Egypt. And Serbia has also changed its name several times, but what remains the same is friendship. The name changed, but friendship remained, so 111 years of friendship, through many misfortunes, like wars, but also through good times and prosperity. I hope that the next 111 years will be the only year of prosperity and wealth. ”
Similarities between Egypt and Serbia
“One thing I understand more and more, every day here is how much the traditions of Egypt and Serbia are similar. Food is very similar, then emotions, family and social structure are very similar, and this is one of the reasons why we want to bring these two cultures closer. And let me give you an example: one of our future cultural activities is to organize an exhibition of Coptic icons that are very similar to the icons I saw in Matica Srpska in Novi Sad and elsewhere. We want to expose these icons next to each other so that we can see the similarities between these icons regarding engravings and drawings, which is very intriguing because people think that there is a great distance between Egypt and Serbia, “he concluded in an interview with Radio Beograd 2 Ambassador of Egypt to Serbia, his Excellency Amr Aljowaily .