On Wednesday 19 May 2010 Villa Madama hosted the third Italo-Egyptian intergovernmental summit, during which a series of bilateral cooperation agreements has been signed in strategic sectors ranging from trade to investments, tourism, culture, agriculture, scientific research and environment to support for small and medium-sized enterprises. Representing Italy will be Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Agriculture Galan, and Deputy Minister for Economic Development Urso; Egypt will be represented by President Mubarak, and Ministers for International Cooperation Aboul Naga, Agriculture Abaza, and Trade and Industry Rachid. The summit falls within a framework of particularly intense bilateral relations marked by a convergence of views on principal foreign policy themes of common interest, top level economic-trade and industrial relations as well as major cultural exchanges and development cooperation programmes. The practice of summits, inaugurated here in Rome in 2008, has led to the multiplication of joint activities in all sectors, which has further strengthened understanding between the two civil societies. Italy is first among European and Western countries to have this form of cooperation, an exercise that President Mubarak himself has stated he wants to raise as a model for stronger Euro-Mediterranean relations.

 

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