A message from Ambassador Nabil Fahmy

28 July 2008

As this summer of 2008 comes to a close, I will be ending my long, challenging and enjoyable tenure as Ambassador of Egypt to the United States stretching over almost exactly nine years. To all of you I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, thank you for your friendship and kindness over these years, and to the others with whom I did not have the privilege I hope that I represented you well and that the Embassy in Washington DC as well as the general Consulates in New York, Chicago, Houston and San Francisco have served you well during that period.

Very often diplomats can name one or two events or issues as having defined their posting in a foreign country. Too many experiences define my tenure as Ambassador for me to do that. It all started literally minutes after my arrival at Dulles Airport in Virginia with a momentous occasion when I received instructions from President Mubarak to congratulate Dr. Ahmed Zewail on being awarded the nobel prize, even before I had submitted my credentials. Tragedy struck with the Egypt Air crash of November 1999. The Arab-Israeli Peace Process then came to an abrupt halt in January 2001and then the heinous attacks of September 11, 2002 shocked the roots of Arab American relations to its very core and placed tremendous pressure on the Arab American community in the United States.

Nevertheless, even in times of tragedy and trepidation I always felt warmly welcomed by Americans through out the continent. And nothing can be more fulfilling than witnessing trade between the two countries more than double, with Egyptian exports ballooning by over 350%. Of course watching the bewilderment and amazement on the faces of visitors to the King Tut exhibit was particularly satisfying as was a week long cultural program we hosted in Washington DC entitled “Everything but the Pharaohs” to bring more of Egypt’s cultural splendors to America. And on a personal level I was always gratified to receive comments after one of my political speeches to the effect that I had laid many concerns or anxieties to rest or clarified points about Egypt that had been unperceived from the coverage in the press.

There were of course some policy differences between Egypt and America during the Clinton and Bush administrations, be that about balance in Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the presumption that a democracy deficiency is the real cost of terrorism or how to deal with it or the last Iraq war. However numerous mutual interests that exist between our two countries have served us well as we overcome many of our differences and found ways to deal with those that remain, albeit was not always easy to do so.

In essence Egyptian American relations are driven by our respective interests, our common strategic objectives of peace, prosperity and excellence and the Egyptian American cooperation as the International Community responds to the numerous opportunities and diverse challenges of globalization. I am confident that Egyptian American relations are deep-rooted and well-founded to remain a cardinal relationship of paramount importance in defining the international community and consensus for the State.

In that vein, I wish you all best in the years to come.

Nabil Fahmy, Egypt's Ambassador to the United States