Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty stressed on Sunday, August 23, his rejection of any attempt to impose maritime access to the Horn of Africa by force.
The Egyptian minister called for respect for the sovereignty of states and the rules of international law during a phone call with the US president’s senior advisor on Arab and African affairs, Massad Boulos.
Abdelatty’s warning regarding maritime access comes amid regional concerns about landlocked Ethiopia’s bid to gain access to the Red Sea.
Ethiopia has been landlocked since Eritrea’s independence in 1993 and currently routes approximately 90% of its maritime trade through Djibouti.
According to the ministerial statement, the two officials also discussed “regional situations and developments in Sudan, Libya, and the Horn of Africa.”
The American advisor also mentioned Egypt’s participation in the second summit of troop-contributing countries to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), held in Kampala at the
end of July.
In this regard, the Egyptian Foreign Minister emphasised the importance of providing AUSSOM with the necessary funding to secure Somalia and counter the resurgence of terrorist threats.
The two officials agreed on “the need to intensify regional and international coordination in support of lasting diplomatic solutions to the various crises on the continent,” the statement noted.
The two officials also discussed the political unification process in Libya and the situation of the civil war in Sudan.
AK/Sf/as/APA