President of the Republic of Cyprus received the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of the Arab Republic of Egypt

From: Presidency of the Republic & Secretariat of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU 2026

| Press release | Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU 2026, Energy, Commerce and Industry, Foreign Policy, President of the Republic / Presidency

The President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr Nikos Christodoulides, received today, 5 September 2025, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Mr Badr Abdelatty, and the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Mr Karim Badawi, at the Presidential Palace, in the presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr Constantinos Kombos, and the Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr George Papanastasiou.

Welcoming the Egyptian Ministers, President Christodoulides said: “You know the importance that we attach to Egypt. Egypt, for us, is the most important country in the region, and we are always working to enhance our bilateral relations at all levels.

What I would like to mention, ahead of assuming the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) on 1 January 2026, is to convey our clear political will in order to work to bring the EU much closer to the region and, of course, much closer to Egypt. We are very glad that you are going to have the EU–Egypt meeting in October. And of course, during our Presidency, we are planning to organise an informal meeting of the EU with the leaders of the region. I would be more than happy to receive to Cyprus President El-Sisi on 23 April”.

President Christodoulides also noted that he considers the bilateral relationship with Egypt a strategic relationship.

On his part, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt said, inter alia, that Cyprus is, “considered also as one of the most important countries to us, especially when it comes to Eastern Mediterranean. It is not only because of history. It is not only because of common values, but also because of common interests, of course”.

He added that President El-Sisi has instructed his Ministers to work even harder with Cyprus in order to further enhance and deepen the bilateral relations and to implement everything agreed by the leaders of the two countries.

“We have an excellent political relationship, but we need to translate it again into a more concrete business-to-business relationship, to have concrete benefits on the people of Cyprus and the people of Egypt. We are fully committed to doing that,” Mr Abdelatty added.

He also noted that, “our relationship with any country in this region will never, under any circumstances, of course, be on the expense of our strategic relationship with Cyprus and with Greece as well”.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt also expressed the wish of his government to have, “an action plan, like what you are going to do with India and with other countries. To have an action plan with Egypt, so as to focus on the implementation of what has been agreed”, by the two governments, pointing out the sky is the limit with regard to what the two countries can do together.

He added that, “energy, as well as natural gas, is an extremely important sector for creating more mutual interest based on a win-win situation”, as well as the fields relating to labour, agriculture, business, and the sector of hospitality, inter alia.

On his part, the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of the Arab Republic of Egypt said, inter alia, that Egypt will be accelerating the process to enable the transfer of Cyprus natural gas to the Egyptian facilities, noting that the first gas from “Cronos” will be ready in 2027 for delivery to Europe, and underlined the commitment of the Egyptian government.