El-Sisi meets Russian Envoy in Cairo, pledges closer ties.
The spokesman of the Egyptian President announced that a high-ranking Russian delegation held talks with Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Cairo on Sunday, during which they pledged to enhance their bilateral ties.
According to a statement from El-Sisi’s spokesperson Ahmed Fahmy, a delegation led by Mikhail Bogdanov, Russia’s deputy foreign minister and President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy to the Middle East, and including Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, met with the Egyptian President on Sunday, with the goal of strengthening bilateral relations.
Fahmy stated that the two parties pledged to enhance cooperation in various areas, such as Egypt’s maiden nuclear power plant project, which is being constructed by the Russian state atomic energy corporation Rosatom.
The visit came two days after the Hague-based International Criminal Court announced an arrest warrant for Putin on the war crimes accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.
In a visit to Cairo in January, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed “Egypt’s votes in the United Nations to condemn Russia’s invasion” as a show of support for Ukraine.
But Cairo has sought to avoid straining relations with Moscow due to its dependency on Russian imports.
Before the war, which has entered its second year, 85 percent of Egypt’s wheat imports were sourced from both Russia and Ukraine.
Since the February 2022 invasion, food prices have skyrocketed in the North African country, contributing to a punishing economic crisis.