CAIRO — Egypt’s Minister of Education Tarek Shawki signed a cooperation protocol with China’s Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang to include Mandarin Chinese as an elective foreign language in Egyptian schools.

The agreement, signed Sept. 7, is part of growing Egyptian-Chinese relations as China seeks to expand its presence in one of the Middle East and North Africa's largest countries. But an Egyptian-Chinese partnership does run the risk of displeasing the United States in light of its trade war with China.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Deputy Minister of Education Mohamed Mujahid said that under the agreement, Chinese specialists and volunteers with the Confucius Institute, a center for exchange and cooperation affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education, will be sent to train Egyptian teachers who speak the language on teaching it to middle, high school and technical school students.

Mujahid said Egyptian students are taught English as a first foreign language and they get to choose a second language to study among French, German, Italian and Spanish. Following the agreement, Chinese will be added to the list.