(MENAFN- Daily News Egypt) Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry participated in a high-level meeting of the Group of Friends of the Global Development Initiative (GDI) on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Shoukry expressed his appreciation to the Chinese side for hosting the meeting and stressed that the global economic crisis, including food insecurity, energy shortages, increasing debt burdens, and human displacement, is hindering efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
He emphasised that these challenges cannot be addressed individually, and called for a global response based on multilateral action and development cooperation.
Shoukry praised the GDI for its role in promoting international cooperation, especially South-South cooperation, and for supporting the acceleration of the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
He said that the GDI could represent a new cooperation mechanism to enhance international efforts to address global development challenges and an important platform for exchanging experiences and best practices in development cooperation.
Shoukry highlighted the importance of GDI projects in agriculture and e-commerce facilitation and stressed that Egypt views the development of the agricultural sector and the facilitation of international trade as essential tools to help developing countries eradicate poverty and achieve the SDGs by the agreed-upon deadline.
Shoukry reiterated Egypt's full support for the GDI since its launch in September 2021, and its participation in all of its activities, including the meetings of the Group of Friends.
He stressed Egypt's continued commitment to supporting the GDI and its efforts to strengthen international cooperation in development based on the spirit of solidarity and the principle of mutual respect to promote prosperity in the global south.
Shoukry meets with Canadian and Croatian counterparts in New York
Earlier on Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met with his Canadian counterpart Mélanie Joly on the sidelines of the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York. The meeting focused on the Sudan crisis, global economic challenges, and high-level mutual visits between the two countries.
Joly expressed her interest in hearing Shoukry's assessment of the Sudan crisis. Shoukry reviewed Egypt's efforts to reach solutions to the crisis, both through its contacts with various international and regional parties and through the path of Sudan's neighbouring countries. He also noted that Egypt has received about 310,000 Sudanese citizens so far.
The two ministers also discussed the most prominent global economic challenges, pointing to the need for the contribution of various countries, including Canada, in efforts to deal with the negative economic repercussions of successive crises.
Later on Tuesday, Shoukry met with Gordon Grlić Radman, Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs. Shoukry congratulated his Croatian counterpart on the successes of the Croatian government on the path of European integration, ending its membership in the Schengen and euro areas on January 1, 2023.
The two ministers discussed arranging a number of high-level mutual visits between the two countries, including meeting the invitation addressed to Shoukry to visit Croatia with a view to holding the next round of political consultations in Zagreb. They also discussed inviting the Croatian Minister to participate in the next session of the Aswan Forum for Peace and Sustainable Development.