BRICS boosts Egypt’s space sector development, deepens cooperation: official

Egypt is leveraging the BRICS platform to advance its domestic space technology and forge closer ties with fellow member states in the space sector, said a senior official from the Egyptian Space Agency.

The 18th BRICS Summit, held in India’s capital city New Delhi from Saturday to Sunday under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability,” has gathered leaders from 11 full member states, 10 partner countries, and invited guests.

In a recent interview with CGTN, Haitham Akah, senior director for space systems design from the Egyptian Space Agency, elaborated on the role BRICS plays in boosting Egypt’s space capabilities and strengthening collaborative ties across the grouping.

“BRICS is one of the platforms that facilitate cooperation with leading countries in different sectors, especially in space. We are still working on that. In the BRICS group, we attended the last breakfast meeting and we are hoping to participate also in the next one. We are preparing the floor for more benefit, more cooperation in this area soon,” he said.

He further highlighted the close working relationships Egypt has forged with BRICS member states in the space field through the multilateral framework.

“We are actually connecting with them very closely and actually BRICS brings us more together, especially of course, China, India, Russia, UAE, South Africa, Brazil. So we are already having good talks and good relationship with them. We are building up on that and trying to move forward,” he added.

Since its inception two decades ago, the BRICS cooperation mechanism has grown into a major platform representing emerging markets and developing economies across the globe.

A senior Ukrainian official said on Saturday that Ukraine is getting ready for another round of peace negotiations next month, which will bring together representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the United States.

Kyrylo Budanov, head of the President’s Office, did not disclose specific details, such as whether the future negotiations will be held in the Middle East or elsewhere.

The statement came a day after the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said in a media interview that Russia expects the three countries to convene for a trilateral meeting in the near future.

Peskov added that Russia anticipates the dialogue among the three sides will carry on.

U.S. special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner traveled to Moscow and Kyiv in early September for high-level talks aimed at finding a settlement to the prolonged Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The previous three-way meeting occurred in Geneva in February without a resolution, and major disagreements, especially over Donbas, persist.