ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Antigua and Barbuda has established diplomatic relations with Egypt, in a signing ceremony held at the Egyptian Mission to the United Nations in New York on Friday.
“Our UN Ambassador Dr John W, Ashe and his counterpart from the Egypt, Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, jointly signed the communiqué establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries and also formally requested the Secretary-General of the United Nations to distribute the document to the other 190 member States of the organization,” said Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer.
“Our two countries have long enjoyed cordial relations both within and beyond the United Nations, so I am particularly pleased that we were able to conclude this formal agreement to establish diplomatic ties here today. The only question is “what took us this long?”” said Ambassador Ashe at the conclusion of signing ceremony.
Ambassador Abdelaziz concurred as he recountered his surprise when he was told that there was no formal diplomatic relations between Antigua and Barbuda and Egypt.
“Both you, Ambassador Ashe, and I have an excellent working relationship at the UN and we have had to work together on some of the most important issues facing the organization, so you could only imagine my surprise when I was told that our two countries did not have formal diplomatic relations. In the end, I am glad that this is no longer the case, and we can now proceed to strengthen our bilateral cooperation on the basis of this initial step” said Ambassador Abdelaziz.
