It's Starting: Egypt Joins BRICS' New Development Bank!!!

Hello everybody and welcome to Geopolitical Trends. My name is David Oualaalou. So good to be with you as always. Well, well, well, the land of the pharaohs, Egypt, approved an agreement to join BRICS. Oh my God, that's very, very significant and I'm going to tell you why. In this video, I'm going to provide you insights into how significant this announcement is and and its implication, of course, on the global energy market. But before I'll delve deeper into all this, first of all, as always, I want to extend my thanks and appreciation to the channel members and supporters. Thank you so much for your continued support. And for you, if this is your first time landing on this channel, make sure to subscribe and smash that notification button so you will be notified every time I upload a new video. And by the way, guys, I'm making some few changes to this channel. Well, one of them will be that anytime I cover a topic, so for us to expand on it, I would like you to share with me your questions in the comment section, and I will answer them in a live stream session with you, which means I will be doing live streams on a weekly basis to answer your question every time I upload a new video. So, and I truly learn from you and I appreciate your engagement into this. Let's dive in into this topic because it is fascinating. So, so the Egyptian parliament just approved an agreement adopted by the government, which means the president is in full support of this, that will allow Egypt to join the New Development Bank of the BRICS— Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. So you may ask yourself, like, you know, everybody will be thinking in terms of why is this significant? Why is it significant? For two main reasons. One is economics and the other one is geopolitical. And I'm going to tackle mainly the economic ones because it's very, very significant. So, so the vice president of the Economic Committee of the House of Representatives in Egypt, his name is Mohammed Abdelhamid. Affirmed that joining the BRICS New Development Bank would benefit Egypt. He said, and I quote, let me get you guys the quote here. He said, and I quote, we will benefit from banks, fine, from the bank's financial and technical assistance in areas such, in areas such as sustainable development, healthcare, infrastructure, transportation, water, and telecommunications, end of quote. You know, it's very significant because basically what Egypt is saying to the US is thank you very much for all the support for the last 30 years, and now we are moving east. So, and get this, guys, the addition, you know, the addition of Egypt will also— to the BRICS, basically— will also relieve the state budget of the pressure to find US dollars to meet import, because members of that bank, meaning the New Development Bank of BRICS, can use their— get this, guys— national currency, meaning bypassing the US dollar in bilateral trade. That is very significant. You remember, I did talk about this in previous videos, that You know, it's moving into that direction, except that for Egypt now, it's really rushing or running faster than it could to get into the BRICS before Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Argentina, and I am sure 23 other countries. So you all see where it's coming here. So another member of the Egyptian Parliament, his name is Ahmed Al-Awadi. He is the head of the House National Security and Defense Committee. Which was shocking. He praised the decision, saying, and I quote, "It represents a step in the fight against the dollarization phenomenon and opens up new markets for Egypt's agricultural and industrial products." End of quote. That's very significant. So mind you, remember, you know, with the population of over 100 million people, you know, and GDP of about $1.38 trillion, Egypt takes the number one spot as the largest economy in Africa. So it just makes perfect economic and strategic sense for Egypt to go ahead and join the BRICS. And remember also that in May of this year, the next BRICS summit will be in South Africa. So Egypt doesn't want to wait till then, so they went ahead and approved everything moving forward. Another member of the Egyptian Parliament, it looks like all of them agree that it makes perfect sense. It's common sense, you know, they're gonna— they are representatives, they're gonna have to think about the welfare of their countries, and this is exactly what they're doing. So So the other member of the parliament, by name is Mervat Matar, stated, and I quote, "The BRICS group is an important forum that can divert the course of the international economy from the US and the US dollar dominance," end of quote. That's how significant this is, you know. And mind you that Egypt also welcomed the Russian central bank's decision a week ago to add the Egyptian pound to its list of foreign currencies exchangeable for rubles. You all see what's coming. You know, just doesn't take a genius to figure this out. You don't have to be a geopolitical analyst. It's common sense. Those are pragmatic decisions by parliament members thinking for the welfare of Egypt. And there is another element that I was aware of back in 2016 when I had a conversation about a consulting project that I advised one particular client that you might want to get on, on this before it's too late. What the reference is to, uh, the, uh, gas field Egypt discovered back in 2015, and I'm gonna tell you about the energy aspects of this deal. So last December of 2022, the Egyptian Council of Ministers announced its decision to join the BRICS, you know, after the proposal by the president, President Abdel Fattah Sisi approves it. Well, it was the same time when a new gas field was recently discovered in an area called Nargis Block. Of the Eastern Mediterranean. You know, Egypt— here is what Egypt is hoping for. Egypt hopes the new discovery will help it reach its aspiration of being the central energy exporter in the region. And this is exactly what I advised that client. I said, you're gonna have to think in terms of your next pipeline coming from the Mediterranean is gonna have to go through 2 countries, and mainly the first one, Egypt or Libya, for it to reach Europe. That's exactly what I advised back in 2017. So, so Egypt's Petroleum Minister Tarek al-Mula made the announcement last week but didn't specify details of the find in, in the Nargis blog. Usually when you discover an oil field or gas field, you don't disclose all the details. However, you know, and I digged enough into this research again because I was aware of it from back then. I just had to update the information. However, the Middle East Economic Survey reported that the size of the new well in early December was about 99.12 billion cubic meters of gas. That is major. That is a lot that can help Egypt, you know, literally sort of reorganize its economy and move its country forward. And joining BRICS makes perfect economic and strategic sense. So here's my conclusion for you, a brief one to the point here. Egypt's newly discovered gas field is poised to help Europe, maybe. You all know why, because the EU, European Union, just signed a deal with Egypt in June last year, you know, and actually signed the deal with Egypt and Israel to increase the gas export to Europe from Eastern Mediterranean. There are a lot of gas in the Mediterranean, and as a matter of fact, I am concerned that it could become a geopolitical nightmare that could lead into confrontation. Because you have to consider the countries in the area, from Israel, of course, and Egypt, to Lebanon, to Greece, you know, all those gonna have to claim Cyprus. They're all gonna have to claim, oh, it's part of our waters. So energy can turn into a nightmare for those countries if they don't come to an agreement. And don't forget Turkey, of course, you know. So for the benefit of Egypt, the finding of gas, that is, could boost Egypt's goal of becoming an energy hub in the region. Once again, that's exactly what I advised the client back in 2016-17. I see you need to consider because Egypt will be your route if you want to transport gas from the Mediterranean to Europe, you know. And this comes, of course, as I mentioned earlier, after the discovery in 2015 of the gas field by none other than ENI. Well, ENI is an Italian energy company. So, and of course, they discovered another field that is called the Zohr gas field. So the Zohr gas field— Zohr is Z-O-H-R— the gas field is considered to be the largest gas discovery in both Egypt and the Mediterranean. According to some internal data from the ANI, the Italian company, which owns, by the way, about 50% stake in the block in this field. Russian Rosneft is about 30% stakeholder, and BP and the United Arab Emirates have about 10% stake into the field. So, so how about discussing this topic further in a live stream? So make sure to leave me your questions in the comment section and I will get on, on a live stream in a day or two and we'll discuss them further and I'll answer your questions. As always, remember, geopolitics impact your daily life in more ways than one. Till next time, guys. Bye-bye.