Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov began his tour of Africa on Sunday with a working visit to Egypt.
The Russian foreign minister arrived in Cairo the night before.
Russia and Egypt maintain a traditionally tight schedule of contacts. Lavrov's previous visit to Cairo was in April 2021, and his Egyptian counterpart last visited Moscow in April this year at the head of the Arab League Ministerial Contact Group delegation on Ukraine.
Ukraine and grain
It is likely that during the current contacts, the sides will again focus on the situation around Ukraine, including in the context of food supplies to the Arab republic. Egypt is the largest importer of wheat in the world, buying about 11-13 million tons annually, which is only half of the country's needs. Russia and Ukraine were the main exporters to the Arab republic. The conflict in Ukraine and anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the West disrupted key grain supply chains. Thus, according to the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade, Egypt's strategic grain stocks are sufficient for several months. Under these circumstances, we can expect Lavrov and Shoukry to discuss the issue of Russian wheat supplies to the Arab republic in detail.
In an interview with African media on the eve of his trip to the continent, the Russian foreign minister assured that Russia would continue to fulfill its obligations under international contracts in good faith, including food and fertilizer supplies to African countries. The agreements on transportation of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports and promotion of Russia's exports of agricultural products and fertilizers, signed in Istanbul on July 22, will also help improve the situation on the world food market.
Joint projects
Another key area of bilateral cooperation is in the energy sector, where Russia and Egypt implement a number of large-scale projects. Recently the construction of the republic's first nuclear power plant El Dabaa began on the Mediterranean coast. As the head of the Rosatom state corporation Alexei Likhachev said, the construction of the nuclear power plant means Egypt's entry into the world atomic club and will be the largest project of bilateral cooperation since the construction of the Aswan Dam.
Speaking by video link at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in June the Egyptian president emphasized that Cairo is proud of the projects being implemented jointly with Moscow. A new example of such cooperation should become the creation of the Russian industrial zone in Egypt, which foresees the localization of Russian enterprises of heavy automobile industry, petrochemistry, power engineering, building materials and the subsequent promotion of high-tech products in the Middle East and Africa. The start of construction of the industrial zone was planned for 2020, but was postponed due to the pandemic.
It is possible that the ministers will also touch upon issues of security of Russian tourists in Egyptian resorts. Egypt is traditionally one of the favorite destinations of beach holidays of Russians. After the resumption in the summer of 2021 of charter flights between the two countries, Egypt until the end of last year had been visited by 680 thousand tourists from Russia.
Common interests
Lavrov and Shoukry exchanged views on the situation in Libya. Moscow and Cairo are influential players in the Libyan settlement, and the positions of the two countries on this issue coincide or, at least, do not contradict each other. Meanwhile, the situation in the North African country has not yet improved.
On Friday, armed clashes broke out in Tripoli and several other Libyan cities.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Egypt was one of the top three importers of Russian arms in the world in 2017-2021. In the same period, Russia became Egypt's main arms supplier, accounting for 41% of Egypt's total arms imports. There is a "two plus two" format of meetings between Russian and Egyptian foreign and defense ministers to discuss sensitive security issues. The last time negotiations in this format took place in June 2019.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS