Chapter 2
Egypt’s
strategic role in Africa and the challenges
To measure a country’s role in
another country or a set of countries, one needs to take
Into account the contribution
that the acting country makes to what the partner country or Countries consider
as important issues to them. And here one can identify a number of Issues of
particular importance to Nile basin countries and analyze the role played by
Egypt on these Issues.
The international
relations passed with different stages during different times with different
attitude and different political conditions, Egypt was during fifties and
sixties Led by revolutionary government, this government policy based on the Liberation from
colonialism so this policy faced welcome from the rest of the region’s
countries that were under the domination of the colonization so during that
time Egypt was a vital resource for these countries by provide All forms of possible
support to these liberation movements in Africa and the Nile basin region ,whether
political and financial support or the Logistic by provide weapons and Munitions or technical support to provide military
training to the components of resistance
movements or media support by Broadcasting router from Cairo to the different African countries with their local
languages that left for Egypt a high balance among the people of these
countries , corroborating reflected till now in the different African capitals
till today in the streets called ABDEL-NASSER or cities like SUEZ or CAIRO, but
after this countries gained its independence their orientations became
different from looking for independence to looking for development so the
Egyptian role in the fifties and sixties became no longer improbable , so here
was the turning point in the features of the Egyptian role in the Nile basin
region and Africa as whole and the transition to the new stage with different
tools. Ambassador Mona Omar , Emad Awad mentioned that the new role focus on
provide technical and scientific support to serve the Process of human development in the
different activities by send doctors and university professors, Technicians and
Azhar, church missions also from another side to improve the process of human development,
Egypt also in 1980 has established the Egyptian Fund for Technical Cooperation with Africa To
be entrusted with
the coordination of the various forms of technical
support and humanitarian and
logistical support to African countries ,
Includes organizing training courses for African trainees in
various fields such as medicine,
nursing, police and the press and
media, agriculture, irrigation , and
provision of humanitarian relief , medical
assistance in the cases of catastrophes, the fund signed more than 61 Bilateral
cooperation agreements and 31 Trilateral Cooperation agreement, but this
countries want to achieve development so beside the technical cooperation they
need a high level of financial and industrial supports that we could not
provide during the last thirty years as well because of There
are a lot of issues attracted the Egyptian attention away from its regional role
toward the Nile basin countries.
During this phase, the beginning
of decline in the Egyptian role at Arab, African have been associated with the
beginning of the new stage with the most important variable has had a profound
impact on the decline this role, the peace initiative between Egypt and Israel,
the Sadat's visit to Jerusalem in 1977 and the subsequent signing of the peace
agreement between Egypt and Israel in 1979 has resulted in this agreement that most Arab
countries severed relations with Egypt, which led to great confusion in the
region and then stopped the Arab-African Conference was attended by 65
countries, Arab, African that Egypt was the first supporter of it.
-Then
there was the collapse of the Soviet
Union and the disintegration in
the early nineties and private United
States-led new world order and
the rearrangement of regional systems
for the benefit of the United States.
-
The assassination attempt of president Hosny Moubark 1995 in Ethiopia (ADIS
ABABA) led to the president prevent to visit any Nile basin countries during the last fifteen year and also led him
to stop attend any African summit
-In Africa, the United States worked to ensure the superiority
of Israel over Arab countries , also worked to eliminate any attempt to possess
the power either to Iran or Iraq or Syria and then the first and second Gulf
War were the process translation of this trend and this policy led to decline and weaknesses
in the Egyptian regional role, especially after Egypt suffered from an economic
crisis in the eighties and early nineties because of the deteriorating of the
economic performance and the collapse of oil prices and a fall in revenues from
the Suez Canal and remittances from Egyptians abroad, as a result of this
challenges the
Egyptian attention attracted away from its regional rule toward the Nile basin
countries.
-The absence of the Egyptian
appearance in the Nile basin region is a result of the weakness of the Egyptian
capacity at the economic and the political, military culture there. This
weakness resulted from the absence of strategic vision resulting
from the lack of awareness of the importance of the
African cycle at Egypt's national security and in
particular the Department of the Nile Basin, Weak manifestation of the
universal force (economic - military - political - cultural - information) is a tool which depends upon any country to play a role on
the regional and international level. The decade of
the 1980s was one of external shocks (in the form of declines in oil prices,
high interest rates and general economic decline), in the world economy. For
example, in 1981, Egypt’s weighted average export price for crude petroleum
collapsed from $34 a barrel to $12 in May 1986. The Egyptian economy did not
respond adequately to these shocks. The consequence was massive fiscal and
current account deficits, which also paved the way for the accumulation of
external debt. Between 1980/81 and 1990/91, the country’s external debt
increased from $22.1 billion to $31.1 billion. At the same time, budget deficit
averaged 18% of GDP annually. The rate of inflation had risen to more than 20%
and open unemployment had risen to about 10% by 1990
As a
result DR.MAHMOUD ABO EL ENIN AND DR.HWAIDA ABDEL- AZIM confirmed that in response to
the decline in the Egyptian economy during 1986-90 period, coupled with massive
fiscal and current account deficits, high inflation rates, negative interest
rates, accumulated external debt and high open unemployment, the Government of
Egypt (GOE) initiated the Economic Reform and Structural Adjustment Programme
(ERSAP) for the period 1991/92 – 1992/93 with support of World Bank, IMF, ADB
and other donors. The goals of ERSAP were: stabilization of the economy in
order to restore macroeconomic balance and reduce inflation; structural
adjustment to stimulate medium and long term growth; and modification of social
policies to minimize the adverse effects of economic reform on the poor and
vulnerable groups. The structural adjustment policies were aimed at reforming
public enterprises and liberalizing all prices, including interest rates. The
underlying assumption was that the introduction of market prices as a basis of
resource allocation would gradually pave the way for the emergence of a virile
private sector. So Egypt was preoccupied with the structural adjustment
programme to survive and it was no place in the Egyptian chest to contain the
Nile basin region demands and needs.
This weakness is not
attributed to the absence of devices operating in Africa, there are a numerous
of counterparts working and operating in Africa , but lack of strategy and
ability to take political decisions in a timely manner, it is necessary to
recognize that the multiplicity of the Egyptian counterparts working in the
field of African without coordination between them in the framework of a clear
strategy constitutes one of the factors important to block any efforts to
report the Egyptian interests in Africa ,by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
the ministries of foreign trade and higher education, culture, media, economy,
defense and interior, Al-Azhar and the Church , the associations of businessmen,
it is clear that each device operates according to perceptions, and this would
conflict perceptions and dispersal of resources and go all these efforts.
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