On 20th July 2016, ECFA hosted some students from Faculties of Economics and Political Science from different Egyptian Universities (Cairo, Alexandria, Beni Sueif and 6th of October). The meeting was within the framework of arrangements carried out by Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, which was attended by both Prof. Mohamed El-Saeed Idris, the Center’s advisor and Mr. Mohamed Abdel kader, expert of Turkish studies, besides ECFA’s members, including Ambassador Dr. Mounir Zahran, the Chairman of the Board, Ambassador Dr. Ezzat Saad, the Director of the Council, along with Ambassador Dr. Mohamed Shaker and Ambassador Dr. Hesham El-Zimaity.
Ambassador Zahran started the meeting by welcoming the guests and defining the role of ECFA as a civil society organization specialized in foreign affairs. He also pointed out to some members of the council who are professors at faculties of Economics and Political Science, such as Dr. Botrous Botrous Ghali, the previous Secretary-General of the United Nations, adding that the Council brings together previous ministers of Foreign Affairs like Mr. Amr Moussa, Mr. Nabil Fahmy, Mr. Mohamed Kamel Amr and Mr. Ahmed Abo El-Ghait.
Ambassador Saad spoke about the working mechanism at the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs which is mainly represented in geographically divided permanent committees, in addition to temporary working groups entrusted with discussing specific issues such as terrorism. This division imposes itself on those who wish to join the membership of the Council and find themselves able to contribute to the activities and subjects of these permanent committees using their experiences, such as the international security, the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons committee and nuclear disarmament, the united nations and other international organization committees, where new members choose to join a permanent committee fundamentally or alternatively. He also added that the members of the Council are from different backgrounds including previous ambassadors, researchers, members of the Egyptian military and intelligence, in addition to the academic scientists like engineers, doctors and others. Members also include corporates which have a valuable contribution to carrying out economic and technical research.
