Egypt reaps harvest of Sisi’s visit to China
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi returned a few days ago from a visit to China during which he participated in the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in what raised questions about the gains that Egypt will achieve from the visit.
CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi returned Sept. 5 from an Asian tour that included China, Uzbekistan and Bahrain and held talks with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the Chinese prime minister, a number of representatives of Chinese companies and President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev. On Sept. 3-4, Sisi also participated in the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
Besides Egypt, several African countries — including Ethiopia, Algeria, Eritrea and Somalia — attended the forum.
This is the fifth visit that the Egyptian president pays to China. His first visit was in December 2014, and he then visited China in September 2015, September 2016 and September 2017.
Egypt has a strong relationship with China, as the country turned into Egypt's biggest trade partner in 2014 with a commercial trade value of about $12 billion. In addition, the number of Chinese tourists doubled in one year to more than 120,000 in 2015 and 180,000 in 2016, according to the website of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
