under the auspices of Prof. Dr. Mahmoud El-Metini, President of Ain Shams University, Prof. Dr. Abdel Fattah Saoud, Vice President of Education and Student Affairs, and Prof. Dr. Ayman Saleh, Vice President of Graduate Studies and Research Affairs, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Shahira Samir, Executive Director of the International Relations and Academic Cooperation Sector, the delegation of Ain Shams University participated in the activities of the second day of the first international friendship forum for university youth, which was held at Mansoura University, in the presence and presidency of Prof. Dr. Sherwat Al-Ahmadi, Director of the Immigrants Department at the university, under the supervision of Dr. Abdel Aziz Mahmoud, teacher at the Faculty of Education.

On the sidelines of the forum, a cultural symposium was held in which Ambassador Mohamed Al-Orabi, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and a member of the Egyptian House of Representatives gave a lecture, entitled “Soft power and the dialogue of cultures is one of the tools of Egyptian foreign policy,” in which he stressed the importance of soft power, which he described as the methods that infiltrate and flow into the minds and hearts of others without an effort through a presentation of cultural heritage and human aspects.

He pointed out that Egypt has many sources of soft power, which play a major role in Egypt's foreign policy to highlight its true image and counter any attempts to distort it. Orabi added that international students in Egypt are one of the most important ways to activate soft power because these students will become ambassadors to Egypt by conveying a correct image of it in their country after their return.

He also stressed Egypt's keenness, especially in the recent period, to open up to African countries, exchange visits with them and support them in reconstruction, which constitutes a good use of soft powers in communicating with various peoples.

It is worth noting that the forum will run from February 7-10.