The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry noted that the Russian side is grateful to the Egyptian partners for their mediation efforts in solving the Ukrainian crisis.
CAIRO, February 21st. /TASS correspondent Alexander Elistratov and Anastasia Olander/. Moscow highly appreciates the fact that Egypt pursues a balanced foreign policy and has an unbiased position on the events in Ukraine. This was stated by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, speaking with a video message at the first meeting of the discussion club of the Center for Eurasian-Arab Studies, which took place in Cairo.
"Russia and Egypt are linked by long-standing traditions of friendship and strategic partnership, which continues to strengthen. Cairo's balanced foreign policy opinion and an open-minded approach to events in Ukraine deserve special respect," Zakharova stressed. The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry added that the Russian side is grateful to its Egyptian partners for their mediation efforts in solving the Ukrainian crisis.
As Zakharova noted, Russia offers the international community honest and conscientious cooperation, and international and regional organizations, for example, the BRICS group, of which Egypt officially became a member on January 1, 2024, are destined to play a special role in this. Such associations, according to the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, "reject the very concepts of separation, segregation, colonialism and humiliation" and therefore can become the basis for fruitful cooperation between the member countries in the future.
The prototype of a multipolar world
"We proceed from the fact that Egypt primarily pursues and protects its own national interests, and it is not going to give up on them, so Cairo sees for itself what is more acceptable to it," Russian Ambassador to Egypt Georgy Borisenko said in an interview with a TASS correspondent. In his opinion, one of the steps that show that Cairo has made "an absolutely conscious and free choice was Egypt's entry into the BRICS group." "We think that our Egyptian friends have made sure in advance that this group represents a format for equal cooperation, which allows us to develop cooperation in various fields: both in the economy and in the humanitarian sphere - and at the same time not to compromise national interests," the Russian ambassador added. According to Borisenko, "in fact, the BRICS format can in many ways serve as a prototype of a multipolar world, when different states, including leading countries from different regions, interact on an equal basis and agree, find mutually acceptable solutions that allow us to promote common interests and at the same time defend their own priorities."
"Russia adheres to the understanding that the formation of a multipolar world is taking place, and we have seen that most Egyptian experts hold a similar point of view," the ambassador said. During today's meeting, Borisenko added, opinions were expressed that the future world should not be called "multipolar", but "pluralistic", but, in principle, "these concepts, from our point of view, are not very different from each other." According to the Russian ambassador, they emphasize that the world will no longer have one hegemon, as it was for several decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when the United States single-handedly tried to rule the world, and everyone was convinced that this one-man rule brings neither good nor economic benefits to anyone, except for this hegemon himself." "In many ways, the understanding of the trends where the modern world is moving coincides in Russia and Egypt," Borisenko said.
He also noted that "he cannot say with certainty what the future multipolar world will be like," but suggested that "the West will fit into it if it stops considering itself above everyone." "We do not reject anyone and consider it necessary to build together a world order that would be more just, more sustainable, and would help everyone's creative development," the Russian Ambassador to Egypt concluded.
The Center for Eurasian-Arab Studies was founded in Cairo in 2021 and is an independent research institution that studies issues of interaction between Eurasian countries and with Western partners. The Center explores geopolitical, socio-cultural and historical aspects in the development of not only Russia and the CIS countries, but also such states as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iran, China, Pakistan and Turkey.
