CAIRO – 14 August 2017: As part of President’s Abdel Fatah al-Sisi continues efforts to enhance the Egyptian-African relations, he departed early Monday morning starting his 4-day tour, which includes visiting Tanzania, Rwanda, Gabon and Chad.
This tour, however not considered to be a sudden move, as Sisi visited several African countries since taking the office in June 2014; participating in summits and conducting bilateral talks with the majority of African leaders.
On June 2014 Sisi participated in the African Union Summit in the Equatorial Guinea as his first presidential visit within the continent, which was considered then a restoration of the African-Egyptian relations after years of neglect during Mubarak’s era.
Several short visits during 2015 followed the African Union Summit participation including, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda per Yuri Museveni invitation on December 2016.
African affairs committee member in the parliament, Hatem Bashat told Egypt Today on Monday that it is true that the African-Egyptian relations were forgotten for a while, however “since Sisi took the office he started a new strategy aiming to restore our role within the continent.”
“This tour is a reflection to the Egyptian diplomacy with our African neighbors since 2014; we have strong points in our relations and long history to relay on,” Bashat explained furthermore.
He added that Sisi has a fixed strategy during dealing with the African countries, “for example, with Rwanda, we are caring more to develop the investments, with Tanzania we discuss the water security files, and finally Chad is considered one of the crucial countries regarding our national security,” Bashat told Egypt Today.
According to a presidential statement issued Sunday regarding the tour, spokesperson Alaa Youssef said the issues and files that Sisi intends to discuss during the visit include the water security issue of the Nile Basin countries, in addition to strengthening the economic and political partnerships of Egypt in the continent and emphasizing the importance of presidential diplomacy in resolving crises and rebuilding the good relationship between Egypt and the other African countries.
Another important issue that Sisi intends to tackle during the visit has to do with maintaining the security and peace in the continent, taking into account Egypt's current membership in the Security Council and Peace and Security Council in African Union.
During this new trip, Sisi will meet the heads of state and top officials of the four African countries. He will also preside over several bilateral meetings, showing the strong partnership ties that is gaining momentum between Egypt and other African countries.
Sisi’s several visits to the African countries since coming to power, considered to be a move which helped to spur Egyptian-African trade exchanges, investments, economic partnership and cooperation in various sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, vocational training, banking, mining and human development.
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