Boutros Ghali
In March 1987, attempts were made to thaw and revive by re-establishing the Egyptian Soviet Friendship Society. Sharaf, with his long experience in eastern bloc countries, was hand-picked by Boutros Boutros Ghali, then Egyptian Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, to become secretary of the friendship society. At the time, the society's president was Ghali himself. Prominent Egyptians from diverse fields of interest were invited to join the society. Both men would travel to Moscow to participate in the society's meetings and gatherings of prominent politicians, diplomats, businessmen, academicians, historians, linguists and enthusiasts of Egyptian Soviet relations. Sharaf's visits to Moscow and his extensive travels in the Soviet hinterland convinced him that the Soviet Union was not the superpower he once knew, he did not, however, predict its sudden collapse.