U.S. keen to double Egypt’s economic growth: Kerry

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Sunday - 2 August 2015

CAIRO: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry affirmed Sunday that his country aims to support Egypt to “double its economic growth.”

The statement came during the opening session of the U.S.-Egyptian ‘strategic dialogue,’ held in Cairo Sunday.

“We welcome President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s steps taken to improve economic conditions,” Kerry said in the Sunday session co-chaired with his Egyptian counterpart Same Shoukry.

The US wants to work with you to better attract capital and support entrepreneurs to create jobs.” Kerry continued, praising on the New Suez Canal project that due to be inaugurated Thursday.

Shoukry highlighted the significance of the bilateral relations and strengthened that Egypt will maintain its role in the region and North Africa, saying that Egypt “has started a phase of enhancing the understandings of freedom, democracy and encouraging the civil society roles.”

Senior Advisor to Secretary of State David Throne said that Egypt has extraordinary potential, seconded Egypt for its economic progress.

Regarding the security issues, Kerry said that there are many ways to combat the terrorism and secure the borders, noting that U.S. will keep training the Egyptian army.

Kerry said that he and Shoukry discussed a number of regional issues including the Palestine-Israel crisis, Iran’s nuclear power, Islamic State (IS) militancy, Libya’s security and political turmoil, and the crisis in Syria.

Four days ago, the U.S. embassy in Cairo stated that U.S. has sent Egypt eight advanced F-16 fighter jets as part of 1.3 U.S. military aids to Egypt to combat “terrorism.” Four more fighter jets will be delivered to Egypt this fall.

Relations between both countries soured when the U.S. partially suspended its annual $1.5-billion aid, following the 2013 dispersal of the pro-Muslim Brotherhood sit-ins.