On February 6, 2023, ECFA organized a meeting with the Egyptian Diplomatic Club, in which it hosted Mr. Amr Moussa, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and the former Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, to talk about “the opportunities available to Egypt to activate its role.” The meeting was opened by Ambassador Mohamed Al-Orabi, ECFA Chairman and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, and attended by a large number of ECFA members, experts and academics concerned with internal, regional and international situations.

The guest reviewed the multiple challenges plaguing the current international state of affairs, namely the crisis of the global order and the many speculations regarding the shape of the possible new order in terms of polarity, parties’ relations, alliances, and mutual influence, under the Russia-West conflict in Ukraine, its repercussions, and the continuing U.S.-China competition and trade  war, including the Taiwan issue, in addition to the accelerating pace of conventional and nuclear armament, which poses an existential threat to humanity, in addition to the crises imposed by climate change issues, the continuation of the Covid-19 crisis and its challenges, and the shortage in supply chains, which contributes to increasing the intensity of food crises and poverty in various regions of the world.

In a related context, the guest discussed the regional situation and its developments, noting that the Arab regional system is disintegrated, and there is no such thing as Arab national security, especially in light of the different visions of Arab countries about the main sources of threat to the Arab peoples. He also referred to the Iranian and Turkish interventions in the region, and to the Iranian nuclear program and the real threats it entails, denouncing at the same time that the Western world has turned a blind eye to Israeli nuclear armament, which gives a great comparative advantage to Israel in the region, even though it constitutes major violations of the relevant international treaties. This is in addition to the tense Palestinian situation, and the extremely complex situations of other Arab countries such as Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen, and Sudan.

In this context, Mr. Amr Moussa affirmed that Egypt must strive to strengthen its soft power in all fields and at various levels, in order to stop the decline of Egypt’s regional role, warning of any internal divisions that may threaten the internal stability of the Egyptian state, especially at the present time. He also indicated the possibility of presenting Egyptian initiatives that would be welcomed by a small number of Arab countries, not necessarily all of them, while emphasizing the importance of the participation of at least one country from the Arab Maghreb, another from Arab-African South, a third from the Arab Mashreq, and so on. In the same context, he pointed out the importance of promoting relations with emerging countries such as Brazil and India, and diversifying Egyptian foreign policy options, while emphasizing the incapability of the Non-Aligned Movement to deal with the current challenges, especially in light of the severe state of polarization that the world witnesses nowadays.