Following an invitation from the Hon Dr Ahmed Fathi Sourour, Speaker of the Egyptian People’s Assembly, the Hon Mr Anton Tabone, Speaker of the House of Representatives, is paying an official visit to the Arab Republic of Egypt from the 11th to the 14th March 2004.
Mr Tabone’s visit to Cairo follows recent bilateral discussions with the Speaker of the Egyptian People’s Assembly during the latter’s visit to Malta on the occasion of the Fourth Conference of Presidents/Speakers of Euro-Mediterranean Parliaments held in Malta on the 20 and 21 February 2004.
On his four-day visit to Egypt, Mr Tabone is expected to hold high-level talks with senior Egyptian officials, including H.E. Dr Ahmed Fathi Sorour, President of the Egyptian People’s Assembly, H.E. Dr Mustapha Kamel Helmi, President of the Shoura Council, H.E. Mr Ahmed Maher, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and H.E. Dr Amre Moussa, Secretary General of the League of Arab States. Mr Tabone is also expected to pay a courtesy call on the Egyptian President, H.E. Mohamed Hosni Mubarak.
Discussions with Egyptian personalities will mainly focus on the strengthening of the parliamentary dimension between Malta and Egypt and the development of an effective parliamentary diplomacy within the Euro-Mediterranean space, at a time when Malta is preparing to become a European Union member on the 1st May 2004. The visit will also provide the opportunity of exploring further avenues of cooperation between the two countries.
Diplomatic relations with Egypt were established on 2 November 1965. Since then, political exchanges at both the bilateral and multilateral level continued to progress and a number of agreements, providing the basic legal infrastructure, have been concluded between the two countries.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives is accompanied by the Hon Mr David Agius, a Member on the Social Affairs Committee and the Hon Mr Joe Mizzi, Opposition Whip.
