Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi received on Sunday March 19 a Russian delegation led by the Special Representative for the Middle East of Russian President Vladimir Putin under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “
war crimes
”.
Mikhail Bogdanov, also Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, was accompanied in particular by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Mantourov, said a press release from the Egyptian President's office.
"Strengthening Relationships"
The two parties "
reaffirmed their mutual commitment to strengthen their relations
" particularly in the economic and industrial fields, referring in particular to Dabaa, the first nuclear power plant in Egypt that the Russian Rosatom has been building for several months.
Dependent on Russian cereals or weapons, most Arab capitals have so far not taken a position on the conflict in Ukraine, anxious to spare Moscow without however alienating the United States, which has taken up the cause of Kiev.
Read alsoWar in Ukraine: Putin went to Mariupol, his first trip to Donbass
Egypt, the world's largest importer of wheat - a cereal mainly from Russia and Ukraine - is particularly inclined to maintain its relations with Moscow.
On March 9, Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and Putin thus spoke by telephone to prepare a "
bilateral intergovernmental commission in Cairo
", according to the Kremlin.
In Cairo at the end of January, however, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken recalled that Egypt had voted at the United Nations "
to condemn the Russian invasion and reject Moscow's attempts to illegally annex parts of Ukraine.
“Welcoming “
a strong demonstration
” from Cairo.
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/RYPA5FRAZ3W4EBDJLA3A5T2ZBI.jpg)
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KMEYMJKESBAZBE4MRBAM4TGHIQ.jpg)
