11 October 2007….

Stemming from Egypt's keenness on promoting Egyptian-Latin American relations, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit assigned Assistant Foreign Minister for American and Organisation of American States Affairs Ambassador Hatem Seif El Nasr to conduct a tour in several Latin American countries, which will include Venezuela, Colombia and Peru, starting from 12 November.

The Assistant Foreign Minister is expected to deliver messages from the Foreign Minister to his Venezuelan, Colombian and Peruvian counterparts. He will also head Egypt's delegation in the political and economic consultations round in the three countries, and will hold a series of meetings with governmental officials, parliamentarians and economists to tackle means of enhancing the various aspects of their bilateral relations, particularly in the political, economic and cultural fields. The Assistant Minister will also give a series of lectures on the horizons of the Egyptian-Latin American relations and Egypt's foreign policy.

Ambassador Sief El-Nasr stated that the consultations will focus on exchanging viewpoints between Egypt and the three countries concerning the most important international and regional issues of common concern, especially the current events in the Middle East, in addition to the efforts of reforming the United Nations and the Security Council. The consultations will also affirm means of enhancing coordination with these countries within the UN and the various regional and international arenas.

The Assistant Foreign Minister's tour is the third of its kind to be conducted this year to Latin America upon the Minister's directives. Ambassador Seif El Nasr has conducted a similar visit last April, which included Brazil, Mexico, Cuba and Panama, and conducted another last June which included Argentina, Chile and Uruguay. This embodies Egypt's keenness on promoting relations with the Latin American countries, which showed similar keenness on active communications with the Egyptian diplomacy.