Sisi arrives in Rwanda, second destination of African tour

CAIRO – 15 August 2017: As his second destination of the African tour, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi arrived Tuesday in Rwanda to resume his talks with the African leaders.

Sisi started his four-day tour on Monday by visiting Tanzania, where he met with his counterpart John Magufuli and held a joint conference in Dar es Salaam city. During their statements, Sisi affirmed that Egypt is looking forward to boosting the volume of trade exchanging, investment, and economic activity with Tanzania.

He added that the Egyptian-Tanzanian relations are ‘long and historical,’ since several ties exist between the two countries including the Nile, and the common targets regarding uniting the African nations that were shared by several political leaders, notably Julius Nyerere and Gamal Abdel Nasser.

“Egypt and Tanzania are looking to the future with confidence and optimism,” Sisi added.
Several other countries are scheduled to be visited during the coming couple of days, including Gabon and Chad.

In statements to Egypt Today on Monday, African affairs committee member in the parliament, Hatem Bashat said 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 of the Egyptian diplomacy with our African neighbors since 2014; we have strong points in our relations and long history to relay on,” Bashat explained.

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, Sisi also intends to discuss the strengthening of 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.