Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi held talks in Cairo on Wednesday, closing out Xi’s first visit to Egypt in a decade with a series of signed agreements, memoranda of understanding, and a joint statement on bilateral ties.
The visit, timed to the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries, coincided with the joint Egyptian-Chinese “Eagles of Civilisation” air exercise, launched 22 August to strengthen military ties between the two countries’ air forces.
It also followed a report that Chinese tech giant Huawei had bid to supply Egypt with more than 2,000 artificial intelligence (AI) computing chips for a data centre.
Xi touched down in Cairo on Tuesday, greeted by Sisi and an entourage of folk dancers and young Egyptians waving both countries’ flags and wearing shirts emblazoned with the Chinese leader’s face. Authorities temporarily closed several of the capital’s main roads as a security measure for Xi’s visits to Ittihadiya Palace and the the Grand Egyptian Museum.
Central to the agreements was Sisi’s announcement of a third phase of the Egyptian-Chinese Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), expanding a project that already hosts roughly 200 companies and $4bn in investment.
