New Zealand and Egypt: A History of Cooperation and Growing Relations

The foreign relations of New Zealand are primarily oriented toward developed democratic nations and emerging Pacific Island economies. Until the late 20th century, New Zealand aligned itself strongly with the United Kingdom (as a former British colony) and had few bilateral relationships with other countries. However, in recent decades, New Zealand has broadened its international engagements, seeking new partnerships and strengthening existing ones.

Geographically distant, Egypt and New Zealand (NZ) have maintained good and cooperative relations since their official start in the mid-1970s. This cooperation has grown to include various sectors, reflecting a commitment to mutual benefit and global collaboration.

Historical Ties

Egypt and New Zealand share a brief common history in the fact that both nations formed part of the British Empire. The first official contact between Egypt and New Zealand was during World War I when in October 1914, troops from the New Zealand Expeditionary Force landed in Egypt and assisted in repulsing an Ottoman attack on the Suez Canal in February 1915. During the war, New Zealand forces partook in the Senussi Campaign and Sinai and Palestine Campaigns. During World War II, New Zealand forces returned to Egypt to fight against both German and Italian incursions in Egypt and known as the Western Desert Campaign. In 1947, New Zealand obtained its independence from the United Kingdom after the passing of the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act.

Trade and Economic Relations

Trade is a priority because it creates jobs for both Egyptians and for New Zealanders. Our trade exchange varies from year to year, it goes up and down both ways. But at the moment, it’s normally between NZD 300 to 350m per annum. In 2022, NZ’s exports to Egypt reached NZD 410m. Meanwhile, Egypt’s exports to NZ reached NZD 14m.

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New Zealand's main export is food, primarily dairy products, meat, fruit and fish; about 95% of the country's agricultural produce is exported. Other major exports are wood, and mechanical and electrical equipment.

NZ also exports some shellfish and meat products to Egypt. But the lion’s share of New Zealand’s exports to Egypt are dairy products, which account for about 90 to 95% of our exports to Egypt. Our largest company, Fonterra, has a partnership with Sakr Group, which processes and re-packages the product here and then exports it elsewhere, making Egypt a regional hub for NZ’s dairy products, given its proximity to Europe, Africa, and the Gulf. It’s a win-win for our trading relationship, a win for Egypt, a win for NZ, and an opportunity to create jobs in both countries as well.

Recently, we’ve been working to also develop Egyptian exports to NZ. So, last year, we approved an export plan for Egyptian oranges to be sent to NZ. Egypt produces the most delicious oranges in the world. So, we’re very pleased to have them on our supermarkets’ shelves. Two months ago, Egypt and NZ signed off an export plan for limes, grapefruit, and all sorts of citrus products. We see good opportunities for expanding and broadening our trade.

In 2015, trade between Egypt and New Zealand totaled US$341 million. Egypt's main exports to New Zealand include: vehicles, apparel, carpets and fertilizer. New Zealand exports to Egypt include: Dairy products, eggs, honey, edible products and products of animal origin.

Trade Volume Between Egypt and New Zealand

Multilateral and Bilateral Cooperation

But our bilateral relationship is much wider than trade. We cooperate extensively with Egypt in a number of different areas, both bilaterally and multilaterally. So bilaterally, there’s a lot of work in the defence area. NZ is a member of the Multinational Force and Observers in Sinai since 1982. Next month, we’ll be doing some work here on woman’s peace and security, we will be partnering up with the Cairo International Centre for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping, and Peacebuilding (CCCPA).

In the cultural space, there’s work between NZ’s national archives and Egypt’s Bibliotheca of Alexandrina on how to digitise historical treasures and historical documents so that they can be preserved electronically and accessed globally.

I was at the General Authority for Investment and Free Zones (GAFI) four or five weeks ago, as we were invited to listen to a briefing to better understand the opportunities in Egypt. It was interesting to learn about the country’s investment space. Next month, we’re also going to have our Joint Trade Commission, which will explore areas of trade promotion and investment as well.

We are really pleased to see the privatisation of some of the state’s assets and the encouragement to the private sector to expand. I think that’s a really great initiative. I think the challenge for New Zealander businesses that want to operate in Egypt is not perhaps understanding the regulatory environment well, which sometimes can seem challenging to understand from a distance.

Challenges and Opportunities

One of the challenges we have is while NZ and Egypt agree on lots of things and are very keen to trade, geographically, we are distant. It takes about 25 hours to fly to New Zealand from Egypt, which can be quite expensive for a lot of businesspeople if they wanted to travel.

One thing that I find a lot of people do is that they come to Egypt and spend two weeks here, and then go to Europe, making it a primary destination for some of our travellers or an important stop in a larger journey.

I think business delegations are really important going both ways. We would very much welcome business delegations from Egypt to meet with our importers or exporters. Likewise, with these trade talks that we’ve got coming up later this month, we’ll be looking at what possibilities there are for delegations as well.

Climate Change Cooperation

We are delighted that Egypt got the global leadership for the COP27 this year. The climate emergency is something which we’re very focused on. New Zealand is a Pacific Island country. And as you know, island countries will be significantly impacted by climate change and the rising sea levels. Likewise, I know that Egypt and Africa will be disproportionately impacted as well by climate change. So, I think both our countries will face a lot of consequences if we don’t cooperate to fight this phenomenon.

Our countries have slightly different climate impacts but share the same concern. We’ll be sending a delegation to the COP27 and have a ministerial attendance as well. We’ve also undertaken to plant a billion trees in NZ as well. Obviously, trees are natural carbon sinks. We’re also engaging in work with the Global Research Alliance (GRA). So, we’re working with Egypt as part of this. And we’re looking at climate change emissions in the agricultural space.

Egyptian Expats in New Zealand

My understanding is that there is about 6,000 Egyptians who live in NZ. They’re very active across all cities, especially in Christchurch and Auckland. A lot of them are in very good jobs, a lot of them are dual nationals, so they are Egyptian New Zealanders. Unfortunately, with the terrorist attack in 2019, we did lose four Egyptian New Zealanders, which was devastating for us, for the embassy, and for our Muslim community in NZ.

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