Egypt concluded an agreement with Greece Tuesday to establish a subsea cable linking the two countries across the Mediterranean. Telecom Egypt, the first integrated telecom operator, and Grid Telecom, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) in Greece, signed a collaboration agreement to build a subsea system connecting the two countries. Egypt’s Minister of Telecommunications and Information Technology Amr Talaat witnessed the signing ceremony in Cairo. The Managing Director and CEO of Telecom Egypt, Adel Hamed, and the Chairman and CEO of IPTO, Manos Manousakis, signed the agreement. The deal is a testimony of the strategic cooperation between Telecom Egypt and Grid Telecom. It comes in line with Telecom Egypt’s strategy of strengthening its infrastructure, expanding its international network, and increasing its entry points to Europe by providing an eastern gateway via Greece through the new subsea system. Talaat said that more than 90 percent of the data flow between East and West passes via Egyptian territorial waters and lands, pointing out that the agreement is the culmination of ten months of hard work since the start of the negotiations during his February visit to Greece. During his previous visit, Talaat witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Telecom Egypt and Grid Telecom to connect the two countries using subsea cable systems. The system will connect Port Said in Egypt to Crete island. The Managing Director and CEO of Telecom Egypt, Adel Hamed, said that the new agreement would give additional value to the company’s worldwide reach to more than 140 destinations in over 60 countries. Chairman and CEO of IPTO Manos Manousakis explained that IPTO Group is taking the initiative to transform Greece into a binding energy and data hub of high geopolitical value at the crossroads of Europe, Africa, and Asia.