Egypt’s President Abdel Fatteh el Sisi visited Saudi Arabia for talks with King Salman over the weekend as cooperation between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Egypt on diplomatic and security challenges reaches a high point.
Sisi, whose rise to power was a defeat for the Muslim Brotherhood that has long been at odds with Saudi Arabia’s government, has benefitted from generous loans and other financial and strategic assistance from alliance Saudi Arabia.
According to Al Arabiya, al-Sisi “praised Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries for supporting Egypt,” and said “the relationship between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and Egypt and its brothers in the Gulf, has been strong and stable for years.”
Egypt’s President Sisi with Saudi King Salman.
Earlier in February, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman described the Kingdom’s stance toward Egypt as “unchangeable” as both countries have strategic links and have a “shared future,” according to Arab News.
After the military ousted the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Mohammed Morsi in 2013, Saudi Arabia approved $5 billion in aid to Egypt and the UAE provided $3 billion to support Sisi’s new government. Saudi Arabia’s contribution included a $2 billion central bank deposit, $2 billion in energy products, and $1 billion in cash, according to Reuters.
Saudi Arabia and Egypt are also cooperating together on a joint power grid between the two countries. Construction of the necessary infrastructure for the joint Saudi–Egyptian electricity grid project was meant to begin in 2015 but has been delayed.
With the rise of the Daesh, the self-described Islamic State extremist group that is a threat to stability in the region, security cooperation between Egypt and Saudi Arabia was at the top of the agenda for this meeting, according to reports. After Daesh brutally executed more that 20 Egyptians in Libya in February, Egypt’s air force bombed Daesh locations in retaliation.
