President attends graduation ceremony of new batch of Police Academy
Egypt won’t accept any threat to Saudi security or Red Sea shipping lanes
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi attended the graduation ceremony of a new batch of police cadets and specialised officers at the Police Academy in New Cairo for the 2026 academic year on Thursday.
In his remarks at the ceremony, President Sisi stressed that protecting the state is the duty of all Egyptians. Later, at a breakfast reception, he said Egypt rejects any harm to the security of Saudi Arabia.
Presidency Spokesman Ambassador Mohamed El-Shennawy said the president was received on arrival by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of the Interior Major General Mahmoud Tawfiq, and Assistant Interior Minister and Head of the Police Academy Major General Dr Nidal Youssef.
The programme opened with a speech by Youssef, who presented the president with a commemorative gift. President Sisi then watched a series of training displays reflecting the high standard of preparation of the academy’s cadets. These covered physical fitness and self-defence, special skills of the women’s combat groups, mountain training and combat proficiency. He also watched a police cavalry display, a parade of police vehicles and special task force equipment, a general military parade, a handover of command and the swearing of the oath of allegiance.
Sisi then presented medals of excellence to the top graduates from the Police Academy, international students, holders of law degrees and women holding physical education degrees, as well as students in the specialist officers’ department, officers studying at the Faculty of Postgraduate Studies and visiting officers studying at the Police Research Centre. Tawfiq then delivered a speech, after which a salute to martyrs was played in honour of the sacrifices of those who gave their lives for Egypt.
Closing the ceremony, Sisi congratulated the new graduates and their families, thanking them for raising their sons and daughters and giving them to Egypt. He praised the great role such families play, in partnership with state institutions, in safeguarding the country’s security and stability.
He recalled that he had spoken the day before on the subject of the nation’s memory, and repeated that Egypt’s security has two wings, the police and Interior Ministry and the armed forces. Each is essential to Egypt’s security and stability at home and abroad, he said, and national security rests on the Defence and Interior ministries.
President Sisi said all attempts to distort the image of Egyptians since 2011 also aim to smear the police and the armed forces, which he again described as the two wings of the nation that must be protected. Both institutions employ huge numbers of people drawn from Egyptian families, he noted, and protecting the two institutions is a duty on everyone, through public awareness as well as security. A crisis in either institution would affect the Egyptian state, he said.
He added that pressure on and targeting of the state will increase in the coming years as achievements and development rates rise, and as opponents increasingly sense that the state in Egypt is still standing on its feet after the plots to topple it in 2011 failed.
Protecting the state is the responsibility of all Egyptians, Sisi said, and the national memory must be shielded from attempts to distort it with lies and slander, including attempts to smear the army, the police and other state institutions. He described Egyptians as the bulwark against such attempts.
Sisi ended his speech by congratulating the graduates and their families. He also advised the graduates to look after themselves and not give anyone the chance to damage the police institution.
After the ceremony, the president attended a breakfast reception hosted by the academy on the sidelines of the occasion. There he spoke with senior officials and media figures about a number of local and regional issues.
Sisi said no country can achieve its development plans in a few years. He noted that it is important to maintain the stability of the state and the course it has chosen. He added that the existence of strong and creative institutions is essential to deliver the state’s goals. He also called for acknowledging shortcomings and working seriously to address them, saying responsibility is shared, especially in preserving the nation.
In the same vein, the President emphasised the need to prioritise the quality of education and to work toward developing qualified and competent cadres without favouritism.
The volume of work in the state is huge, he added, as is the body of knowledge about its affairs, and those who rule Egypt and senior officials must be fully aware of it.
On regional developments, Sisi said the geopolitical changes in the region are large and deep and will have repercussions on the entire region. He said Egypt and Saudi Arabia are the heart of the Arab and Islamic nations. He added that any harm to either would affect the other. It is true that the national security of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf states is interlinked, he said, and targeting the kingdom in this way affects Arab and Egyptian national security alike. Egypt does not accept any harm to the kingdom’s security, and rejects any threat to the security of Red Sea and international shipping lanes, he said, adding that Egypt’s concern is the kingdom’s security and stability, and the de-escalation of tensions.
The president also pointed to risks on Egypt’s southern and western borders, noting that Cairo had made every effort to avert conflict in Sudan. The stability of Sudan, Libya and Gaza is a requirement of Arab and Egyptian national security, he said.
He added that in all his meetings and contacts with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since 2014, he has stressed that the creation of a Palestinian state would benefit everyone and lead to lasting peace and stability in the region.
Sisi said the work and achievements delivered in Egypt since 2014 could not have been completed in fewer than 30 years, and he pledged to keep working until the last day of his term.
