Terrorism, regional crises to top Sisi’s visit to Paris

CAIRO – 23 October 2017: Egypt's President Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi will visit France on Monday upon an invitation from his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, in the first official visit of Sisi to the Elysee Palace since Macron took office.

The Elysee Palace announced that the two presidents are scheduled to have a working luncheon on Tuesday, where they will discuss a number of issues of mutual concern including regional crises, counter terrorism, and human rights.


The visit’s agenda

The Egyptian president’s agenda will include discussing means of enhancing relations in the cultural, educational, military and economic fields, the Élysée statement noted.

Sisi will also meet with a number of French businessmen to boost economic cooperation with the French side, since France is the biggest investor in Egypt with €3.5 billion worth of investments, which makes it the 7th biggest importer to Egypt. Meanwhile, there are 160 French corporations operating on Egyptian soil, employing more than 30,000 Egyptians in all fields.


Economic and Military Cooperation

France has close trade and military relations with Egypt. French companies have 160 subsidiaries in Egypt employing more than 30,000 people, operating in key sectors of the Egyptian economy, such as electrical equipment, pharmaceuticals, distribution, hydrocarbon exploitation, tourism and infrastructure.

The volume of trade exchange reached €2 billion ($2.29 billion) in 2015/2016, of which €1.5 billion were Egyptian imports and €0.5 billion were exports. The volume of French investments in Egypt amounted to €3.6 billion in 2015/2016.

In the transport sector, the Cairo Metro shows significant participation by French companies, with investments estimated at more than €2 billion since 1980. French companies were recently awarded the contract for the fourth phase of Line 3, with civil engineering for the same phase worth €1.12 billion.

In the military field, several major export contracts have been concluded, including the sale of four Corvette ships by DCNS (May 2014), 24 Rafale fighter aircraft by Dassault Aviation, a multi-mission frigate by DCNS and weapon systems by MBDA (February 2015).

In October 2015, France agreed to sell two Mistral helicopter carriers to Egypt for €950 million, after their sale to Russia had been canceled in August 2015.


Cultural Ties

The France Institute leads cultural cooperation with Egypt through three centers in Cairo, Alexandria and Heliopolis.

There is also the French Research Institute for Development (IRD) in Cairo. It manages scientific programs on the relationship between man and the environment in the Asia-Pacific region, the Mediterranean region, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

IRD is under the joint authority of French authorities responsible for international development assistance on one hand and research on the other. IRD’s three main functional areas are research, advisory services and capacity building.

France has other organizations in Egypt in the field of archaeology, including the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology (IFAO), the French-Egyptian Center for the Study of the Temples of Karnak (CFEETK) and the Centre d’Etudes Alexandrines (CEAlex), as well as several archaeological missions.


Cross-Border Threats

France has been under a state of emergency since November 2015, when 130 people were slaughtered in a wave of coordinated violence across Paris. The French anti-terrorism campaign coincided with Egypt's intensive fight against terror groups since the ousting of former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi.

The bloody attacks forced France to strengthen its foreign policy in the Middle East, with priority given to besieging networks of foreign militants in Syria, Libya and Iraq.

Egypt has a particularly key role for France regarding Libya. The French administration believes that Egypt is the number one key to resolving the Libyan crisis, as well as an important player in Syria too.