MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti) – Egypt’s next leader will seek to boost cooperation between Cairo and Moscow, a spokesperson for Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel-Ati told The Voice of Russia radio station Friday.
“I am sure that our relations with Russia will achieve a breakthrough after the upcoming presidential election,” the diplomat said.
Russia is a great nation which is playing an important role in the settlement of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and other political crises, he underlined.
“Egypt as you know is a key country in the Middle East, both in terms of the size of its territory and its mediatory role in settling problems in the region,” the spokesman said.
“So we, like anyone else, are well aware that Russia plays an important positive role as a member of the Quartet of Middle East mediators in resolving the Palestinian conflict. As Libya's neighbors, we also know that Russia does a lot for stabilization of the situation in that country, which is very important for us,” he added.
Ankara has the same point of view on the settlement of the Syrian crisis as Moscow, he added.
“There is no military solution to the Syrian conflict. We both call for a political solution,” the diplomat said.
The representative of the Egyptian Foreign Ministry underlined that Russian-Egyptian bilateral relations won’t be effected by the ongoing Ukrainian crisis.
“First of all, Egypt believes that the Ukrainian crisis has to be resolved peacefully. Our strategy of promoting the strengthening of partnership with Russia won’t change. Egypt needs new partners. I am sure that our economic cooperation with Russia won’t deteriorate. On the contrary, we are going to expand it in all areas,” Badr Abdel-Ati underlined.
The Egyptian presidential election will take place on May 26-27. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the now-retired army chief who led last summer's overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi, appears to be the front runner. The only other candidate is leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahi, who came third in the 2012 presidential election.
