YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. Armenia and Egypt signed memoranda of cooperation in sport, science and technologies within the framework of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s visit to Armenia on January 29.

Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Armenia Artur Martirosyan told ARMENPRESS that the agreements will contribute to the development of relations between the two countries and the implementation of new projects in these important sectors.

Martirosyan said the legal-contractual framework between Armenia and Egypt was formed back in 1997. An agreement on cooperation in culture, education and science was in force since 1997, and the new agreements will further intensify the cooperation.

“Within the framework of the new memoranda, we plan to organize various training-educational camps in the sports sector, training of coaches, which will also launch the Armenian-Egyptian contacts on the level of federations. By the way, there’s a background in this context too, many Armenian coaches used to work in Egypt.  And the cooperation in science and technologies will enable us to implement joint scientific-technical projects, research, as well as exchange of scientists in various priority directions,” Martirosyan said.

Cooperation with Egypt encompasses all sectors under the ministry’s coordination, Martirosyan said.

The most recent event held as part of the active cooperation program in culture was held in 2009 when Days of Egyptian Culture was held in Armenia.

“We’re also cooperating with Egypt in developing Armenian studies, and currently the University of Cairo is among the 13 institutions teaching Armenian studies, with visiting experts. I’d also like to point out that 51 citizens of Egypt are studying in Armenian universities, which shows that there is interest among the Egyptian society, and we certainly want to increase these numbers. Also, 3-4 young Armenians travel to Egypt on a one-year program to learn Arabic,” Martirosyan said.

The agreement on mutual-recognition of qualifications and cooperation in education and science is currently under negotiations. The agreement will enable to have state-funded scholarships on mutual basis and to resolve the issue of recognition of diplomas and graduation documents.

“The last point is the youth sector. The Egyptian side proposed to have mutual youth camps and we are now negotiating to organize a visit of the Egyptian youth delegation to Armenia and vice versa in 2024,” Martirosyan said.

The Deputy Minister said the meeting of the Armenian and Egyptian presidents was a highly important signal, and the signing of the memoranda will be followed by practical meetings.

Gayane Gaboyan