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Egypt Prepares for New Step Towards Completing Construction of Dabba Nuclear Plant

Egypt is preparing to receive Russian President Vladimir Putin to participate in the inauguration of the station's fourth reactor. (Egypt's Nuclear Power Plants Authority)
Egypt is preparing to receive Russian President Vladimir Putin to participate in the inauguration of the station's fourth reactor. (Egypt's Nuclear Power Plants Authority)
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Egypt Prepares for New Step Towards Completing Construction of Dabba Nuclear Plant

Egypt is preparing to receive Russian President Vladimir Putin to participate in the inauguration of the station's fourth reactor. (Egypt's Nuclear Power Plants Authority)
Egypt is preparing to receive Russian President Vladimir Putin to participate in the inauguration of the station's fourth reactor. (Egypt's Nuclear Power Plants Authority)

Egypt is moving towards a new executive step in inaugurating its first nuclear plant in Dabaa on the Mediterranean coast.

Egypt is preparing to welcome Russian President Vladimir Putin to participate in the inauguration of the station's fourth reactor.

Experts told Asharq Al-Awsat that the visit had significant implications, including an "end to Moscow's isolation" and "pushing towards a greater role for Moscow in the region."

Putin will visit Egypt to participate in laying the foundation for the fourth reactor, confirmed Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

"Yes, preparations are already underway, and this event is very important," Peskov told reporters on Friday.

According to the Russia’s RT Arabic, Peskov said Russia's cooperation with Egypt continues in various fields. Cairo "is a very important partner, including in the field of this advanced technology, which is crucial for further development in Egypt."

Moreover, Peskov stressed that Russia is an unparalleled leader in the global nuclear industry.

"We provide better, cheaper, and higher quality services, making it extremely challenging for other participants in this market to compete with us," he stated.

4 Generation III Reactors

In 2015, Egypt contracted with the Russian state company Rosatom to establish a nuclear station in Dabaa.

The plant will include four "Three +" generation reactors operating with pressurized water, with a total capacity of 4,800 megawatts, 1,200 megawatts each, with the first reactor scheduled to be launched in 2028 at a cost of up to $30 billion.

Egypt's former Ambassador to Moscow and Director of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs Ezzat Saad told Asharq Al-Awsat that Putin's visit underlines the importance of bilateral relations and cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear energy.

Saad added that the visit is evidence of significant and sustainable strategic cooperation between Cairo and Moscow.

Rosatom

Russia's Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation recently announced it was opening a representative office in Egypt.

Director of Rosatom's country office in Egypt Murad Aslanov said Rosatom has launched an industry-wide initiative to consolidate its foreign presence's office infrastructure.

The Dabaa station is the company's most significant project in Africa. Located in the Matrouh Governorate, it is Egypt’s first nuclear facility.

Under the agreement, the Russian company will deliver nuclear fuel, train personnel, and provide support in the operation and servicing for the first ten years of the operation of each unit.

Political science professor at Cairo University Nourhan al-Sheikh echoed the ambassador's statement, telling Asharq Al-Awsat that Putin's visit reflects the strength of the strategic cooperation between Egypt and Russia that has been ongoing for the past two years.

Sheikh confirmed that Russia can no longer be isolated, especially after Putin visited Saudi Arabia and the UAE last year.

Putin is acting according to agendas and agreements with friendly countries, and sanctions or the International Criminal Court's (ICC) ruling have no impact, said the professor.

Putin's isolation

Since the Russian war on Ukraine in February 2022, the US and Europe have sought to isolate Putin, who broke the seclusion with his state visits to Saudi Arabia and the UAE last December.

Putin's visit to Cairo confirms Moscow's interest in the Middle East region, said Sheikh, noting that Russia is boosting its role in the Middle East and Africa. The Gaza war is one of the important issues that will be discussed by President Abdulfattah al-Sisi and Putin.

Sheikh added that Moscow is interested in the Red Sea and is aware that the military actions of the US and UK forces in the waterway not only target the Houthi militias in Yemen, but Russia and China as well.

Russian president's visit

The former diplomat stressed that many regional issues will be discussed during Sisi and Putin’s meeting.

The US must review its Middle East policy, he stressed, explaining that Washington's insistence on siding with Israel and its inability to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza have harmed its credibility.

Saad elaborated that Russian positions on regional crises may lead to rapprochement between nations, but within limited capabilities given Moscow's preoccupation with its war on Ukraine and its domestic economic concerns.

Sheikh said Russia is concerned with the stability of the Middle East and sees this as achieving its interests, in contrast to the United States, which prefers instability.

The Russian policy towards regional issues has gained traction compared to the decline in public acceptance of Washington, she noted.

Recent years have witnessed intense competition between the US and Europe, on the one hand, and Russia and China, on the other, for influence in Africa. Moscow has boosted its commercial presence in Africa and in the Middle East.

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Defending Migrants Was a Priority for Pope Francis from the Earliest Days of His Papacy 

Pope Francis poses for selfie photos with migrants at a regional migrant center in Bologna, Italy, Oct. 1, 2017. (AP)
Pope Francis poses for selfie photos with migrants at a regional migrant center in Bologna, Italy, Oct. 1, 2017. (AP)
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Defending Migrants Was a Priority for Pope Francis from the Earliest Days of His Papacy 

Pope Francis poses for selfie photos with migrants at a regional migrant center in Bologna, Italy, Oct. 1, 2017. (AP)
Pope Francis poses for selfie photos with migrants at a regional migrant center in Bologna, Italy, Oct. 1, 2017. (AP)

Advocating for migrants was one of Pope Francis' top priorities. His papacy saw a refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, skyrocketing numbers of migrants in the Americas, and declining public empathy that led to increasingly restrictive policies around the world.

Francis repeatedly took up the plight of migrants — from bringing asylum-seekers to the Vatican with him from overcrowded island camps to denouncing border initiatives of US President Donald Trump. On the day before his death, Francis briefly met with Vice President JD Vance, with whom he had tangled long-distance over deportation plans.

Some memorable moments when Francis spoke out to defend migrants:

July 8, 2013, Lampedusa, Italy

For his first pastoral visit outside Rome following his election, Francis traveled to the Italian island of Lampedusa — a speck in the Mediterranean whose proximity to North Africa put it on the front line of many smuggling routes and deadly shipwrecks.

Meeting migrants who had been in Libya, he decried their suffering and denounced the “globalization of indifference” that met those who risked their lives trying to reach Europe.

A decade later, in a September 2023 visit to the multicultural French port of Marseille, Francis again blasted the “fanaticism of indifference” toward migrants as European policymakers doubled down on borders amid the rise of the anti-immigration far-right.

April 16, 2016, Lesbos, Greece

Francis traveled to the Greek island of Lesbos at the height of a refugee crisis in which hundreds of thousands of people arrived after fleeing civil war in Syria and other conflicts in the Middle East and South Asia.

He brought three Muslim families to Italy on the papal plane. Rescuing those 12 Syrians from an overwhelmed island camp was “a drop of water in the sea. But after this drop, the sea will never be the same,” Francis said.

During his hospitalization in early 2025, one of those families that settled in Rome said Francis didn't just change their lives.

“He wanted to begin a global dialogue to let world leaders know that even an undocumented migrant is not something to fear,” said Hasan Zaheda.

His wife, Nour Essa, added: “He fought to broadcast migrant voices, to explain that migrants in the end are just human beings who have suffered in wars.”

The news of Francis' death shocked the family and they mourned “with the whole of humanity,” Zaheda said.

In December 2021, Francis again had a dozen asylum-seekers brought to Italy, this time following his visit to Cyprus.

Feb. 17, 2016, at the US-Mexico border

Celebrating a Mass near the US border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, that was beamed live to neighboring El Paso, Texas, Francis prayed for “open hearts” when faced with the “human tragedy that is forced migration.”

Answering a reporter’s question while flying back to Rome, Francis said a person who advocates building walls is “not Christian.” Trump, at the time a presidential candidate, was campaigning to do just that, and responded that it was “disgraceful” to question a person’s faith. He criticized the pope for not understanding “the danger of the open border that we have with Mexico.”

Oct. 24, 2021, Vatican City

As pressures surged in Italy and elsewhere in Europe to crack down on illegal migration, Francis made an impassioned plea to end the practice of returning those people rescued at sea to Libya and other unsafe countries where they suffer “inhumane violence.”

He called detention facilities in Libya “true concentration camps.” From there, thousands of migrants are taken by traffickers on often unseaworthy vessels. The Mediterranean Sea has become the world’s largest migrant grave with more than 30,000 deaths since 2014, when the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project began counting.

Feb. 12, 2025, Vatican City

After Trump returned to the White House in part by riding a wave of public anger at illegal immigration, Francis assailed US plans for mass deportations, calling them “a disgrace.”

With Trump making a flurry of policy changes cracking down on immigration practices, Francis wrote to US bishops and warned that deportations “will end badly.”

“The act of deporting people who in many cases have left their own land for reasons of extreme poverty, insecurity, exploitation, persecution or serious deterioration of the environment, damages the dignity of many men and women,” he wrote.

US border czar Tom Homan immediately pushed back, noting the Vatican is a city-state surrounded by walls and that Francis should leave border enforcement to his office.

When Vance visited over Easter weekend, he first met with the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. Afterward, the Holy See reaffirmed cordial relations and common interests, but noted “an exchange of opinions” over current international conflicts, migrants and prisoners.