French President Emmanuel Macron received in Paris on Friday his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for official talks on a range of international and regional developments.
Egyptian presidency spokesman Bassam Rady said the Egyptian-French summit tackled several regional issues, especially developments in the Palestinian Territories and efforts to revive the peace process.
Macron expressed his appreciation of Cairo’s role to that end, he added.
Sisi, for his part, stressed his country’s firm position for the need to reach a just and comprehensive solution that ensures the rights of the Palestinian people and establishes an independent state according to international resolutions.
They addressed developments in Libya and Lebanon.
Sisi said there can be no settlement to crises there without political solutions that preserve their territorial integrity and national institutions.
Macron said France was eager to intensify coordination with Egypt over affairs in the Middle East given its influential role in the region, Rady added.
France is Sisi’s third stop in a tour of Europe that had taken him to Germany and Serbia.
His talks in Paris are part of the ongoing consultations between Paris and Cairo and the close political, defense, economic, trade, cultural and scientific ties that bind them.
Sis and Macron have met five times in the past two years. Sisi visited Paris twice in 2021 to take part in conferences on Sudan, Libya and oceans.
Official sources in Paris said France is “very keen” on consulting with Egypt given the “significant” role Cairo plays in several crises. They revealed that Paris is eager to cooperate with Egypt over the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Macron had received Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday. Their talks focused on reviving Palestinian-Israeli negotiations that have been suspended since 2014.
In early July, the French president welcome Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.