PM hails shared stances with Cairo at 29th Joint Jordanian-Egyptian Higher Committee meeting

AMMAN — The 29th Joint Jordanian-Egyptian Higher Committee meeting was held in Amman on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Bisher Al Khasawneh and his Egyptian counterpart Mustafa Madbouli.

Khasawneh welcomed holding the meetings of the joint committee, stressing their high productivity and great outcomes that reflect positively on the bilateral relations, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The prime minister also referred to the joint and similar stances of both countries towards the Arab national security, mainly the Palestinian issue and the importance of resolving it according to the two-state solution that guarantees the establishment of a sovereign, independent Palestinian state within the 1967-lines with East Jerusalem as its capital.

He also expressed the Kingdom’s appreciation of Egypt’s stances and its continuous support to His Majesty King Abdullah in his capacity as the Custodian on Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.

The premier also voiced Amman’s solidarity with Cairo in combating all that affects its national security, stressing that protecting the Egyptian national security is part of preserving the Arab national security.

Khasawneh also referred to the trilateral cooperation mechanism between Jordan, Egypt and Iraq, which lays the foundation to enhance economic, commercial and energy integration, noting that this mechanism goes in line with other Arab bilateral mechanisms.

The joint Jordanian-Egyptian Higher Committee meetings are held while the entire world is going through a crisis imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to changes in the structure of the global economy and affected the international health system, the prime minister added.

In this regard, he stressed that life must go on until reaching a safe summer that witnesses the resumption of regional ties and economic activity. 

For his part, Madbouli voiced Egypt’s keenness to hold the committee meetings at a regular basis so as to positively reflect on ties and cooperation, highlighting the coordination between the two countries towards various issues, at the top of which is the Palestinian cause.

The Egyptian premier also highlighted the importance of overcoming impacts and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and resuming commercial exchange between the two countries, noting that Jordanian products and commodities are welcomed on the Egyptian market.

He also expressed appreciation and gratitude for the attention paid to the Egyptian workforce in the Kingdom.

The meetings of the higher committee went over means to enhance cooperation in several fields, such as increasing volume of commercial exchange, enhancing electricity connection, boosting cooperation in the fields of gas and oil, facilitating the entry of Jordanian medicines to Egypt and increasing the exchange of agricultural produce.

Khasawneh and Madbouli also held a head-to-head meeting, during which they reviewed bilateral relations and means to enhance them in all fields at the bilateral level and trilaterally with Iraq.

At the end of the meetings, the two countries signed seven memoranda of understanding and executive programmes, including a cooperation memo on supervising companies, an executive programme for a cooperation memo in water resources and an executive cooperation programme on exchanging expertise between the two countries’ ministries of planning and international cooperation.

In addition, they signed a memo on antiquities, an executive programme for cooperation in the housing and civil development field for 2021-2022, a framework agreement to enhance electricity connection capabilities and a memo on ICT.

Khasawneh and Madbouli also signed the meeting minutes of the 29th Joint Jordanian-Egyptian Higher Committee.