Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will discuss with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Paris regional developments and means of bolstering bilateral cooperation in various fields.
Talks come on the sidelines of Paris International Conference on Libya, which is being organized with the United Nations, Germany and Italy and comes ahead of Libya’s elections scheduled for Dec. 24.
According to a presidential statement, Sisi will hold “summit talks” with Macron and discuss all aspects of bilateral ties in a way that achieves the interests of both countries and peoples.
They will also hold consultations and mutual coordination and exchange views on several regional and international issues.
Sisi is scheduled to hold talks with senior French officials to push cooperation forward in the economic, trade, investment and military fields, presidential spokesperson Bassam Rady said.
Sisi was invited by Macron to participate in the conference, in light of the close bilateral ties and Cairo’s pivotal role in supporting the political path in Libya at the bilateral, regional and international levels, Rady added.
“The president will focus on unifying efforts to support Libya during the key historical turning point it is currently going through,” Rady noted, in reference to the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.
He will underline the need to expel all foreign forces and mercenaries from Libyan territory, and point to Egypt’s ongoing efforts on the various economic, political and security levels, the statement read.
Egypt’s ambassador to France Alaa Youssef pointed to the full coordination between both leaders on all international and regional issues, including the developments in the Middle East region and the situation in Libya.
French-Egyptian relations have developed in the past years, Youssef said.
He expected the trade volume between Cairo and Paris to increase as a result of French companies’ interest to benefit from the available investment opportunities in Egypt.
