President El-Sisi Meets the French President in Paris

Today, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with French President Emmanuel Macron, in Paris.

The Spokesman for the Egyptian Presidency said that during their talks, President Macron welcomed President El-Sisi in Paris, lauding the remarkable progress in Egyptian-French bilateral relations across all fields. He noted that this was reflected on the intensive exchange of visits at the highest levels between the two countries’ senior officials. The French President asserted that his country looks forward to boosting bilateral cooperation in the coming period and to enhancing political consultations and exchange of views on various issues of mutual concern, particularly as Egypt is one of France’s key partners in the Middle East and a cornerstone for stability and security in the region.

President Macron underscored France’s keenness on supporting the ambitious measures undertaken by Egypt to achieve economic progress and comprehensive development. Those include increasing investments, transferring expertise and technology, and localizing the French industry; the international economic institutions’ praise for the performance of the Egyptian economy is also taken into consideration.

President El-Sisi valued the outstanding level of the Egyptian-French bilateral and strategic relations in various fields, particularly in the political, economic, trade and military areas. The President expressed commitment to continuing the periodic consultations with the French President, either with regard to enhancing bilateral cooperation and strengthening the Egyptian-French partnership or regarding regional and international issues of mutual interest.

President El-Sisi highlighted the fruitful outcomes, resulting from the exchange of presidential visits between the two countries. This is in addition to the latest visit by the Egyptian Prime Minister to France in October 2021 and his meeting with senior French officials as well as CEOs and chairmen of major French companies in various sectors to discuss their companies’ projects in Egypt. The President confirmed the Government of Egypt’s resolve to create a conducive business environment for French companies to boost the size and scope of their investments in Egypt and remove any obstacles facing them. President El-Sisi lauded the bilateral cooperation agreements signed between the two sides during this visit.

The meeting discussed ways to foster closer bilateral cooperation across an array of fields, particularly in the sectors of railways, the localization of the electric vehicles industry, and the development of ports, civil aviation, energy, water treatment, infrastructure and tourism. The two Presidents commended the Egyptian-French military relations, which are considered to be the most remarkable in the outstanding relations between the two countries after the conclusion of key arms deals over the past years, looking forward to further advancing them.

The talks also reviewed ways to coordinate efforts with Egypt with regard to settling the crisis in Libya, particularly in light of the International Conference on Libya which Paris hosts and Egypt’s status as one of Libya’s key neighboring countries. This is in addition to Egypt’s sincere efforts to support the political trajectory in Libya, by hosting a number of events involving the full spectrum of local influential actors in Libya, within the framework of the UN path of political settlement. An agreement was reached on continuing joint concerted efforts between Egypt and France toward settling the situation in Libya in a comprehensive and integrated manner that addresses all aspects of the Libyan crisis, until holding the awaited elections in December 2021 and evicting all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libyan territories, which will help restore security and stability in the country and maintain the state’s resources and national institutions, away from any political inferences.

The two Presidents also discussed strengthening bilateral cooperation in the face of terrorist organizations on the local, regional and international arenas, particularly in Africa. This shall take place either by supporting UN peacekeeping operations or international actions in this regard, given the growing pace of uncoordinated foreign interferences that complicate solutions aimed at resolving the crisis of the spread of terrorist groups.

President El-Sisi and President Macron also reiterated the importance of boosting Euro-Mediterranean cooperation between Egypt and the EU, in light of the changes and current crises on the international scene in health, environment, economic, political, and social-related aspects with the aim of achieving stability and growth for the region’s countries and neighboring countries. This is in addition to curbing the flow of illegal migration to Mediterranean Basin countries.