By Xinhua
Cairo : During his first official visit to Egypt since assuming the presidency in May, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak boosted coordination on regional and bilateral affairs to exert influence on regional hot-spots as influential powers in the region.
Pressure on Syria
At a joint press conference after their talks at the presidential palace here, Sarkozy and Mubarak on Sunday called on Syria to help Lebanon achieve a national consensus on the postponed presidential election and maintain its stability.
The two leaders stressed the necessity to safeguard the independence of Lebanon’s national will and realize its national reconciliation.
Sarkozy noted that France will have no more contact with Syria until Damascus shows sincerity in letting Lebanon choose a consensus president.
It’s time for Syria to show proof of goodwill and take action instead of paying lip service to help solve the Lebanese crisis, the French president added.
For his part, Mubarak responded to Sarkozy’s tough stance on Syria, urging the country, which he described has the strongest impact on the conflicting parties in Lebanon, to “use its influence in Lebanon to work towards reconciliation so that the parliament elects a president.”
Syria has been accused of meddling in the internal affairs of Lebanon, which Syria has categorically denied.
Appeal to Israel
In an effort to reassure Arab states concerned about his strong ties with Israel and stress France’s Arab-friendly policy, Sarkozy asked Israel to make peace gestures to show its commitment to peace with the Palestinians.
It’s time for Israel to make gestures which would show that peace is possible, including ending settlements in the occupied West Bank, Sarkozy said, reiterating France’s position that being a friend with Israel doesn’t mean being complacent.
Sarkozy and Mubarak agreed on the necessity of following up the results of the Annapolis peace meeting held on Nov. 27 in the United States and the subsequent donor countries conference held in Paris on Dec. 17.
Both leaders agreed to mobilize the necessary political and economic support for the Palestinian National Authority to ease the suffering of the Palestinian people and to provide the proper atmosphere for serious negotiations to achieve their aspirations to set up an independent state, Mubarak said.
Concern on African conflicts
During the talks, the French and Egyptian presidents also tackled on efforts to achieve national reconciliation in Sudan and Somalia.
On Saturday morning, Sarkozy and Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir discussed on phone the situation in the restive Darfur region, reiterating the importance of swiftly reaching a political solution to the Darfur problem, according to Egypt’s MENA news agency.
He also called for expediting the deployment of hybrid UN-AU (African Union) force in Darfur as well as European forces in Chad in order to realize peace in the region.
Mediterranean Union and bilateral cooperation
During their talks, Mubarak expressed Egypt’s support to Sarkozy’s initiative for setting up a Mediterranean union, noting that Egypt welcomes this proposal, which was regarded as complementary to the existing Euro-Mediterranean forums and a push to the current friendly relations among the regional countries.
For his part, Sarkozy expressed France’s keenness to cooperate with Egypt in the field of peaceful use of nuclear energy and provide Egypt with technology know-how and expertise.
The meeting between the two leaders also tackled on cooperation on fighting terrorism, which, Sarkozy said, was one of the important elements of France’s policies.
Both of them expressed interest on probing efforts to boost bilateral economic and trade exchange as Sarkozy expressed hope that France, which has invested 3 billion Euros (4.4 billion U.S. dollars) in Egypt as its fifth investor, would soon be the country’s first foreign investment partner.
Sarkozy arrived in Cairo on Sunday for his two-day official visit to Egypt, his first since assuming the presidency in May, after spending a Christmas holiday in ancient Egyptian city of Luxor in the south and Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.