Chinese language President Xi Jinping attends a welcome ceremony held by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi previous to their talks in Cairo, Egypt, on September 2, 2026. Xi held talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Cairo on the day. Photograph: Xinhua
Chinese language President Xi Jinping on Wednesday raised a four-point proposal on constructing a brand new safety structure within the Center East through upholding a imaginative and prescient of frequent, complete, cooperative and sustainable safety, the Xinhua Information Company reported.
In his talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Xi mentioned China helps nations within the area in growing good-neighborly and pleasant relations.
To advertise frequent safety within the area, Xi requires unleashing inside drivers, advancing an built-in strategy, cementing improvement basis, and enhancing worldwide coordination.
For his half, Sisi welcomed Xi’s historic state go to to Egypt on the event of the seventieth anniversary of diplomatic ties between the 2 nations.
Sisi mentioned that because the institution of diplomatic relations, bilateral ties have developed in a sound and regular method, and cooperation throughout varied fields has yielded fruitful outcomes. Egypt firmly adheres to the one-China precept and is dedicated to additional advancing the Egypt-China complete strategic partnership, Sisi added.
Chinese language analysts mentioned that Xi’s four-point proposal sends a transparent message that Center Jap nations ought to pursue higher strategic autonomy in safety affairs quite than rely excessively on exterior powers, and the individuals of the Center East needs to be the masters of their very own affairs. Stronger China-Egypt coordination might assist discover a path for the Center East to maneuver from turbulence towards stability, they famous.
For many years, many regional nations depended closely on exterior powers for safety safety and spent closely on Western weapons, but such dependence didn’t all the time translate into efficient safety when their very own safety got here beneath risk, Solar Degang, director of the Heart for Center Jap Research at Fudan College, advised the International Occasions.
Extra Center Jap nations are subsequently reassessing their safety methods and in search of to rely extra on themselves to safeguard sovereignty and nationwide safety. This displays a rising willpower to keep away from changing into pawns or targets in major-power rivalry, and enjoying a higher position in shaping a regional safety structure that higher serves their very own pursuits, Solar mentioned.
Liu Xinlu, vp of Beijing International Research College, advised the International Occasions that China’s determination to place ahead the proposal in Egypt itself underscores the nation’s strategic significance. Egypt serves as an vital anchor of regional stability, occupies a pivotal place in safeguarding Purple Sea transport, and stays a key mediator on the Palestinian-Israeli situation.
Stronger China-Egypt coordination is subsequently serving to discover a path for the Center East to maneuver from turbulence towards stability – one during which regional nations have a higher say over their very own future, Liu mentioned. “It is not going to be a brief street, but when the course is true, each step counts.”
Enhanced partnership
Throughout Xi’s state go to to Egypt, the 2 nations launched the joint assertion on additional deepening their complete strategic partnership.
China and Egypt have cast a friendship that includes equality and mutual belief, friendship and mutual studying, solidarity and mutual assist, in addition to win-win cooperation, mentioned the joint assertion on Wednesday.
The 2 heads of state additionally agreed to strengthen coordination on world governance and safeguard the pursuits of growing nations and the International South, mentioned the joint assertion, per Xinhua.
China and Egypt agreed to encourage Chinese language firms to actively pursue cooperation on business localization and assist Egypt’s digital transformation and sustainable improvement, mentioned the joint assertion.
The emphasis on localization, digital transformation and sustainable improvement displays how China-Egypt cooperation is evolving past conventional sectors and changing into extra carefully aligned with Egypt’s long-term modernization objectives, Chinese language analysts identified.
Li Weijian, a scholar from the Shanghai Institutes for Worldwide Research and vp of the Chinese language Affiliation for Center Jap Research, advised the International Occasions on Wednesday that China and Egypt have lengthy shared a excessive diploma of consensus on improvement cooperation and governance, whereas Egypt has seen tangible advantages from sustained and pragmatic cooperation with China. This, he mentioned, has laid a stable basis for the long-term stability of bilateral ties.
Li famous that the importance of such cooperation has turn out to be much more pronounced amid renewed turbulence within the Center East. Whereas the area had skilled a wave of reconciliation after Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic ties, extended battle between Israel and Hamas and persevering with tensions surrounding Iran have once more disrupted regional stability. Towards this backdrop, he mentioned, China and Egypt’s continued give attention to improvement cooperation is especially priceless.
In contrast with a decade in the past, nations throughout the Center East have developed a stronger consensus on the significance of improvement, cooperation and modernization, Li mentioned. On this sense, the Chinese language President’s go to affords a mannequin for the broader area, exhibiting that even amid instability, improvement cooperation can stay an vital pressure for sustaining regional stability and shaping the area’s future.
New co-op highlights
In the course of the talks, Xi referred to as on China and Egypt to create new highlights for cooperation in inexperienced power, EVs, aerospace, digital economic system and fashionable agricultural know-how, Xinhua reported.
In keeping with Xinhua, the 2 sides signed greater than 20 cooperation paperwork in areas together with the digital economic system, science and know-how, training and transportation.
Li famous that nations together with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have rolled out nationwide improvement visions, with infrastructure remaining a elementary prerequisite for additional industrial upgrading. On the identical time, modernization is not merely about constructing roads and bridges. Inexperienced improvement, electrical autos, synthetic intelligence and the digital economic system are more and more shaping the subsequent stage of progress, and Egypt has robust demand for cooperation in these rising sectors.
The cooperation areas highlighted throughout Xi’s go to subsequently correspond carefully to Egypt’s improvement wants, whereas pointing to a broader shift in China-Egypt cooperation from conventional infrastructure towards a extra various, technology-driven and future-oriented mannequin, Li mentioned. Given Egypt’s affect in each the Arab world and Africa, such cooperation might generate a broader demonstration impact throughout the Center East and Africa and contribute to wider International South cooperation.
Tangible advantages witnessed
The evolution of China-Egypt cooperation is just not solely mirrored in agreements signed on the management degree. Its impression can also be seen on the bottom – in industrial parks, factories and the profession trajectories of atypical Egyptians, International Occasions reporters have witnessed first-hand in Cairo.
The breeze from the Purple Sea blows in from Sokhna Port, the place transport routes connecting Asia, Africa and Europe converge. Contained in the port, cargo ships come and go as containers are loaded and unloaded; additional into the port space, factories, manufacturing services and supporting service areas are scattered throughout the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Financial and Commerce Cooperation Zone, with staff from totally different nations shifting amongst them.
After years of improvement, what was as soon as barren land has turn out to be an vital instance for China-Egypt industrial cooperation, in addition to a spot the place an rising variety of younger Egyptians discover jobs, construct careers and pursue their skilled goals.
“Once I first joined TEDA in 2015, about half of this space – maybe much more – was nonetheless desert. Immediately, greater than 200 firms have established operations right here. Chinese language firms have created many alternatives for native Egyptians. My household and buddies all see it as an excellent achievement that I’ve had the prospect to work alongside Chinese language colleagues,” Mohamed Eissa, an Egyptian worker of XD-EGEMAC Excessive Voltage Electrical Tools Co., Ltd., advised the International Occasions on Tuesday.
Eissa, who additionally goes by the Chinese language identify Yun Hai, joined XD-EGEMAC in 2015 as a translator and has since labored his means as much as turn out to be supervisor of the corporate’s procurement division.
Yun mentioned the job has modified the trajectory of his life. His present earnings places him in Egypt’s center class, and his way of life has improved considerably.
His private expertise mirrors the broader growth of Chinese language industrial cooperation in Egypt.
Since its institution in 2009, the corporate has undertaken or participated in 65 EPC and gear provide initiatives for 500-kilovolt and under energy transmission and transformation initiatives in Egypt, securing an general market share of greater than 30 p.c, the International Occasions discovered from the corporate.
Its cumulative contracted worth has reached roughly 6.7 billion yuan ($970 million), driving greater than 4 billion yuan in exports of Chinese language-made energy transmission and distribution gear and core parts.
The corporate has efficiently launched China-made 500-kilovolt GIS merchandise into the Egyptian energy grid marketplace for the primary time, successfully breaking the long-standing dominance of European and US firms in Egypt’s high-end energy transmission and distribution gear sector.
Established in 2008, the TEDA Zone has now turn out to be an indication challenge linking the Belt and Street Initiative with Egypt’s improvement of the Suez Canal Hall financial zone.
For the reason that growth space of the TEDA Zone was inaugurated on January 21, 2016, building has steadily progressed, with new initiatives in sectors together with new power, textiles and residential home equipment successively signed, launched and put into operation. The zone has turn out to be more and more built-in with Egypt’s financial improvement. As Chinese language firms’ funding curiosity continues to develop, the zone expanded westward by one other 2.86 sq. kilometers final 12 months.
These adjustments, in accordance with Chinese language specialists, illustrate how China-Egypt cooperation is shifting past particular person infrastructure initiatives towards deeper industrial integration, know-how upgrading and localized improvement.
Professional Liu mentioned that China-Egypt cooperation is present process a qualitative leap. For Egypt, this shift is just not solely about industrial upgrading, but in addition about supporting employment and bettering individuals’s livelihoods.
Liu mentioned this evolving mannequin – from infrastructure to high-tech sectors and from bilateral cooperation to broader regional spillovers – is offering a replicable instance for China-Arab and China-Africa cooperation. It exhibits that cooperation amongst International South nations can transfer past conventional infrastructure and lengthen into superior manufacturing, technological innovation and different increased value-added sectors.
