On the horizon
Next week is shaping up to be very busy on the diplomacy front:
Egypt will extend its leadership on energy policy in the Eastern Med next week when Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and his Greek counterpart, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, visit on Monday. Look for plenty of talk about energy and curbing Turkish influence in the region. The two heads of state will be in Egypt to mark “A Week to Revive the Roots,” a celebration of the three nations’ shared culture and minority communities slated to run 30 April through 6 May with events in Alexandria and Sharm El Sheikh.
Cypriot Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis is expected in Cairo during the trip to discuss energy cooperation.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin is due in Cairo on Sunday and Monday, his ministry announced. Look for talks to be dominated by trade and tourism: Egypt is a significant market for Ukrainian wheat, and Ukraine has recently been an important tourism market for Egypt, although it remains to be seen whether that will continue. Industry watchers think a substantial number of the 750k Ukrainian tourists who visited last year were Russians using Ukrainian flights to side-step Moscow’s flight ban.
French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian is due in Cairo any day now.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is set to visit Cairo on Monday, 30 April.
Uber / Careem appeal this Saturday: The Supreme Administrative Court is scheduled to hear on Saturday an appeal by Uber and Careem of a lower court decision that ordered the two companies to suspend operations. The Administrative Court has scheduled a separate hearing for 15 May. The two companies continue to operate under a Court of Urgent Matters ruling that stayed the initial suspension.