Thank you so much for your patience.

It's great to see you all here today.

I would like to acknowledge and to thank Ambassador Reda of Egypt, Ambassador Bouguerra of Algeria,

and our cultural heritage preservation partners.

We have Deborah Lehr here from the Antiquities Coalition.

We have Gary Knell from National Geographic.

And we also have Patty Gerstenblith, who's here, who's been chairing our Cultural Property

Advisory Committee.

I also want to thank our team, Mark Taplin, our Principal Deputy in ECA who's overseen

this and Maria Kouroupas, who oversees our Cultural Heritage Center, for their great

work.

So, in just a few minutes, Secretary of State John Kerry and Egyptian Foreign Minister Shoukry

will sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the governments of the Arab Republic of Egypt

and the government of the United States of America, concerning the imposition of import

restrictions on categories of archaeological material of the Arab Republic of Egypt.

People around the world, even at an early age, learn about Egypt's pyramids, mummies,

and hieroglyphs.

Egypt's cultural heritage has been a source of fascination and inspiration for countless

generations, young and old.

Egypt, too, has offered its own unique expression of some of the world's great religions through

architecture, art, and the written word.

In short, Egypt's irreplaceable heritage must be protected, and the United States is

committed to doing its part.

Tomorrow, at the Egyptian Embassy, several objects that were trafficked into the United

States in recent years will be returned by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to

their rightful owners, the Egyptian people and their government.

Today's signing of the U.S.-Egypt Cultural Property Agreement is a key step in ensuring

that from now on our two governments will prevent Egypt's cultural patrimony from

being trafficked into the United States in the first place.

This agreement is also important because it further strengthens a long history of cooperation

between our two countries in the area of cultural property protection.

American researchers have been active in the field of Egyptology since its beginnings.

U.S. experts provided technical assistance to help Egypt save monuments from being flooded

by the Aswan High Dam.

The U.S. government has supported Egypt's cultural heritage sector in other ways too,

taking steps to help stabilize the Sphinx, to preserve ancient mosques in Cairo, and

to protect temples in Luxor and other areas of Upper Egypt.

My own Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs funded ICOM's publication of an

emergency red list of Egyptian cultural objects at risk and supports other Egyptian projects

under the U.S. Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation.

Finally, I'd like to note that the cultural property agreement that will be signed today

is the first we have concluded with a partner country in the Middle East region.

The United States stands ready to enter into similar agreements with other countries, whose

cultural heritage is at risk of being looted and illegally trafficked.

Please stand by.

We hope momentarily to have with us ‒ [LAUGHTER] ‒ Secretary Kerry and Egyptian Foreign Minister

Shoukry.

And again, thank you for your patience.

[APPLAUSE]

[LAUGHTER]

[CAMERAS CLICKING]

[APPLAUSE]

SECRETARY KERRY: My great pleasure to welcome the foreign minister of Egypt here today,

and I think both of us would express our pleasure at signing this U.S.-Egypt cultural property

agreement.

This has been years in the making.

It represents the first agreement in the Middle East or North Africa regarding the protection

of antiquities.

And it's a real challenge on a global basis, so this is groundbreaking.

I think it's a good moment for Egypt, the United States, for the region, for us to make

it clear that these antiquities are priceless treasures that do not belong to traffickers

and crooks and should not be sold illegally and bought by wealthy people to hide away

somewhere.

They are the antiquities that belong to the world, that have been protected and should

be protected by an old civilization.

And so I think this is a great step forward, and Sameh, I thank you for joining in this

effort.

Thank you.

FOREIGN MINISTER SHOUKRY: Thank you, Secretary Kerry.

I'm delighted to be here on this occasion to sign this important agreement of the maintenance

and protection of our heritage, both for the Egyptian people but for humanity at large.

This is a common heritage that we share and it is important to protect and maintain people's

understanding of the commonality that binds us together.

So we are grateful for the cooperation that the United States has shown and the understanding

on this important issue, and we hope that it becomes a roadmap for the protection of

these antiquities to preserve them for generations to come and to preserve them against the treachery

of those who want to destroy them and to wipe out this commonality of our humanity.

Thank you.

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you.

[APPLAUSE]

Thank you for joining us.

We appreciate it.