BBC MONITORING
INTERNATIONAL REPORTS: EGYPT: PRESIDENT OF DJIBOUTI COMMENTS ON TALKS WITH MUBARAK
96% match; BBC Monitoring Service -
United Kingdom ; 26-Jan-2000 12:00:00 am ; 274 words
Excerpts report in English by Egyptian news agency MENA
Cairo, 26th January: President Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti Wednesday [26th January]
said he and President Husni Mubarak see eye to eye on all important issues probed on
Tuesday.
During a press conference at the close of his two-day visit to Egypt, Guelleh said the
two countries will go on with coordination and consultation to protect their joint
interests.
Guelleh-Mubarak talks covered bolstering bilateral relations in all domains, notably in
economy and trade, besides the situation in Somalia, Sudan and the Horn of Africa, he
said...
Guelleh supported Sudanese President Umar Bashir's steps to bring Sudan back to the
Arab and African family and spare it extremism, violence and duality of power.
After President Bashir and ruling National Congress Secretary-General Hassan Turabi are
back on good terms, Guelleh said the political situation in Sudan should improve and halt
duality of power. The main target is to launch cooperation with Sudan as a peaceful
partner and state that does not nurture extremism, he said.
As part of his efforts to reach peace in Somalia through contacts with the different
factions there, Guelleh said he recently met with the advisers of Husayn Aydid in
Djibouti, who were ready to attend the reconciliation conference in April.
On Egypt-Djibouti trade and economic relations, he said that the two countries could
increase cooperation under the Comesa [Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa]
umbrella because of the strategic place of Djibouti as a passage on the Red Sea and the
customs cuts that could be given to Egyptian commodities.
Egypt will hold a fair for its products in Djibouti late in April, he said, a four-way
Egypt-Djibouti-Kenya-Tanzania navigational line will be opened, and Egypt and Djibouti
will set up two-way telecommunications.
Source: MENA news agency, Cairo, in English 1550 gmt 26 Jan 00