Dear Readers of the Swiss Egyptian Friendship Newsletter,

The Egyptian – Swiss relationship has been, as always, a very dense one in 2018. Building up on the visit here of our State Secretary for Economic Affairs, Mrs. Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, in December 2017, as well as the political consultations between Assistant Foreign Minister Amr Ramadan and State Secretary for Political Affairs, Mrs. Pascale Baeriswyl, in Bern in April 2018, our two countries have been able to bring forward several fields of cooperation. Open questions could be addressed and even solved for the Swiss companies and the Embassy was also able to open a new Swiss Honorary Consulate for the Red Sea Governorate personified by Véronique Lusci based in El Gouna, while we were witnessing the opening of a new line of Swiss between Geneva and Hurghada. We also enjoyed wonderful moments of sharing with the Swiss Community in Alexandria, the Swiss Club in Cairo and at the occasion of the Celebration of the National Day in my Residence.

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Another event marked this important year with the meeting end of September in the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York of the Swiss President Alain Berset and the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. They announced an increased interaction in the migration file while emphasizing the continuation of the Cooperation Strategy 2017-2020 (Swiss Cooperation Strategy). We also celebrated in 2018 the 30 years of the presence of the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia in Egypt with an outstanding performance of the mime group “Mummenschanz” in September and Switzerland participated actively to several film festivals lately.