El-Sisi Meets His South African Counterpart in Niamey

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met today with President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa on the sidelines of his chairmanship of the first mini-coordinating summit of the African Union (AU) in Niamey, Niger.

The Spokesman for the Egyptian Presidency stated that President El-Sisi renewed his congratulations to President Ramaphosa on his re-election as President of South Africa, expressing his best wishes for success during the coming presidential term. He added that he looked forward to continuing and strengthening historical and brotherly relations between Egypt and South Africa in all fields, and on the continental and international levels due to the two countries leverage that serves their interests and those of Africa as a whole.

For his part, President Ramaphosa praised the continuous development of the bilateral relations, expressing his great appreciation to the people and leadership of Egypt. He also highlighted the presence of wider prospects for the developing relations and enhancing joint cooperation between the two countries in various fields in order to achieve comprehensive development.

The Spokesman stated that the meeting addressed ways of enhancing bilateral cooperation, especially in the fields of economy, trade and investment exchange in order to set a role model for cooperation among African countries, taking into consideration running the Cairo-Cape Town corridor project and other various infrastructure development projects in in Africa because of their great impact in consolidating development process.

The meeting also witnessed the exchange of views between the two presidents on the developments of a number of regional issues and files related to the African Union. The South African President praised the successful and effective Egyptian leadership in the current African joint action, especially with regard to developing the agenda of economic and regional integration of the continent by focusing on the implementation of infrastructure projects, launching the Continental Free Trade Agreement under the Egypt’s chairmanship of the African Union, which would lead to doubling the intra-African trade, appreciating in this regard the Egyptian role in the African Union, particularly in light of its historical political and economic leverage in the continent.

With regard to regional issues, a number of them were discussed, especially Libya, where President El-Sisi affirmed Egypt's keenness on the unity and stability of Libya, our continued support for all steps of political settlement in the country, and the efforts of the National Army in the elimination of terrorism.

On the other hand, the two presidents agreed on the need to strengthen political consultation between the two countries on various issues of peace, security, economic development and strategic dialogue in the African continent, since they believe in the important role played by the two countries in light of the Egypt’s current chairmanship of the African Union, followed by South Africa’s chairmanship in 2020.