Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin underlined the need for reaching an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, realizing a de-escalation and avoiding acts and measures that could push the region towards an abyss.
This came during their meeting Tuesday on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan, where they held an expanded session of talks, during which Putin welcomed Sisi’s visit to Russia, expressing his happiness at Egypt’s participation in the summit for the first time as a member of the BRICS, and stressing that Egypt’s accession to the bloc represents an addition to its work and contributes to strengthening its role as a platform for enhancing multilateral cooperation among developing countries.
During the talks, Sisi stressed the need to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the people of the war-battered Gaza Strip, in addition to supporting Lebanon and guaranteeing respect for its sovereignty, security and stability.
He expressed pleasure for his participation in the Russian-hosted summit, stressing Egypt’s keenness to engage in the activities and frameworks of the gathering, and praising efforts exerted by the Russian presidency of BRICS, to serve the interests of member states. Also, president underlined the importance that Egypt attaches to strengthening cooperation with Russia, not only at the multilateral level, but at the level of bilateral relations that are witnessing a great progress in various fields, based on the comprehensive strategic partnership agreement signed between the two countries in 2018. He praised the robust cooperation between the two countries in many joint ventures, especially the project to establish the Russian industrial zone in the Suez Canal Economic Zone and the Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant project.
According to the spokesman for the presidency, the meeting between the two presidents took up many regional and international issues of mutual concern and showed their agreement on the necessity of de-escalating the situation in the Middle East region in light of the negative repercussions that the ongoing conflict there is having on the area and world at large.
The spokesman said that the discussions also dwelt on a number of pressing international files, including the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, where President Sisi affirmed Egypt’s position which calls for seeking diplomatic solutions and political settlements for any crises through dialogue, in a way that preserves international peace and security, and preserves the capabilities of peoples of all countries.
