Sisi expected to visit Paris in fall: French ambassador

CAIRO – 2 Aug 2017:French Ambassador to Egypt Stéphane Romatet said on Wednesday that President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi will visit France in fall, and French President Emmanuel Macron will also conduct a similar visit to Egypt before the end of this year.

Romatet stated in a meeting with a group of journalists at his residence that in the first days of the French president taking his new post, he had made the first telephone call between him and his Egyptian counterpart, with President Sisi being among a select group of very few leaders and heads of state to talk with the new French leader in his first days in office, adding that since then, the two leaders have been in regular contact.
The Egyptian president called on his French counterpart to visit Egypt. Both will exchange visits over the upcoming weeks and months.

Romatet said that the time of the visits has not been decided yet, but it is likely that President Sisi will visit Paris in the fall of this year.

Commenting on the Libyan crisis, the French ambassador said that Libya represents a serious crisis. He pointed out that officials in Egypt and France share a vision for the crisis and that the Libyan case is a priority of France’s foreign policy, which it wants to work on with Egypt.

The ambassador added that the Egyptian and French sides' views on Libya are related to three aspects, including the security aspect, as the security vacuum in Libya poses a serious threat to Europe, Egypt and other neighboring countries, such as Tunisia.