In the context of the visit of the Chief of the National Guard, Lieutenant General Demokritos Zervakis, to Egypt, to observe the Multinational Exercise "MEDOUSA 12/2022", a meeting was held on Thursday, November 24, 2022, with his counterpart, Lieutenant General Osama Roshdy Askar at the Headquarters of the Armed Forces of Egypt.
During the meeting, the two Chiefs made an initial assessment of the exercise and, in addition to noting the excellent planning and conduct by the personnel of the four participating countries, as well as the steadily growing interest of other friendly countries to join the exercise, they acknowledged the contribution of both the MEDUSA exercise and other similar international exercises to regional security and stability. They also discussed current developments in the region. They also discussed the current developments in the Mediterranean and the Middle East as well as other issues of wider relevance to global and regional security and stability, such as the situation in Ukraine and Libya.
In addition, there was a review of progress in the implementation of the Bilateral Defence Cooperation Programme and the corresponding Trilateral Programme with Greece for the current year, as well as an extensive exchange of views on the actions planned to be included in the respective programmes for 2023, the conclusion of which is in its final stage.
In this context, the Chief thanked his counterpart for the excellent cooperation and hospitality of the personnel and means of the National Guard both for the exercise "MEDOUSA" for the sixth consecutive year, as well as for other actions carried out in Egypt, and expressed the intention to continue and expand it in other areas. In this context, he expressed his appreciation for the acceptance and excellent organization of the recent visit of a mixed team of officials and staffs of the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the General Staff to explore additional fields of cooperation between the Armed Forces of the two countries.
Lieutenant General Askar, returned thanks for the cooperation as well as for this year's large participation of the National Guard in the exercise and in turn noted that there are many areas of common interest that the Armed Forces of the two countries can mutually benefit from. The two Chiefs also acknowledged that in addition to the purely operational co-training and cooperation, the development of respective social activities has an important role to play in order to further develop interpersonal relations and knowledge of the culture of the two countries. In this direction, they described as important the initiative launched in October 2022 with the hosting of families of members of the Egyptian Armed Forces in Cyprus and the upcoming corresponding hosting of members of the National Guard in December in Egypt.
The meeting concluded with the two Chiefs acknowledging that the challenges faced by the two countries are common and confirming their mutual strong will to further deepen the strategic relationship between the Armed Forces of the two countries to address them.
The meeting of the two Chiefs is a continuation of the high-level bilateral contacts at civil-military level between the Republic of Cyprus and Egypt, as well as the corresponding trilateral contacts with Greece. It confirms the excellent relations and the multi-level strategic cooperation that has been developed between the two countries and continues to evolve and strengthen on the basis of the principles and rules of international law, based on the common vision and objective of effective management through bilateral and multilateral cooperation of security challenges and the maintenance of peace and stability in the wider Eastern Mediterranean region.
(MX/SX)
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