Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is ready to go to Qatar on Tuesday, his first journey to Doha because the 2017 GCC disaster.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is ready to go to Qatar on Tuesday, his first journey to the Gulf state since 2017, when three Gulf states together with Egypt lower diplomatic ties with Qatar.
El-Sisi is scheduled to satisfy Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani throughout his two-day journey, which comes almost three months after el-Sisi held talks with Sheikh Tamim in Cairo geared toward selling relations between the 2 international locations.
Egypt and Qatar restored diplomatic ties in January 2021 following the signing of a reconciliation settlement in Al-Ula, Saudi Arabia. Apart from Sheikh Tamim’s June journey to Cairo, the 2 leaders have additionally met on the sidelines of summits this yr.
Discussions on bilateral ties are anticipated to happen, together with rectifying a tumultuous relationship and funding alternatives.
Rebuilding a tumultuous relationship
In 2017, Egypt, together with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, severed diplomatic, commerce and journey ties with Qatar, after accusing Doha of interfering of their inner affairs and supporting “terrorism” within the area. Doha denied these claims, and, in flip, accused the identical states of economically and politically besieging Qatar.
After diplomatic ties had been restored final yr, Qatar and Egypt have engaged in mutual visits and bilateral agreements. This has included taking diplomatic steps that noticed the mutual appointment of ambassadors and the operation of direct flights between Egypt and Qatar for the primary time since 2017.
When Israel attacked Gaza in August, each Egypt and Qatar had been fast to dealer a ceasefire following a three-day lethal offensive by Israel.
In June, based on the Egyptian presidency, the Qatari emir additionally “praised Egypt’s ongoing efforts on reconstruction within the Gaza Strip”. Doha and Cairo – key United States allies within the Center East – have each offered reconstruction assist to the besieged territory and have been concerned with mediation efforts between Israel and Gaza’s directors, Hamas.
Financial funding
The Russian battle on Ukraine has deepened Egypt’s meals disaster because it effected international meals costs and wheat exports.
Egypt has been onerous hit by the repercussions of the battle: it’s among the many world’s largest importers of wheat, with roughly 80 p.c of its provide coming from Russia and Ukraine final yr. In keeping with World Financial institution figures, inflation in Egypt spiked to round 9 p.c in February, a rise attributed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February.
Round 350,000 Egyptians work in Qatar and ship a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in remittances residence yearly.
Scrambling to spice up its economic system, Egypt inked funding agreements value $5bn throughout a go to by Qatar’s Overseas Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani to Cairo in March.
Hydrocarbon large QatarEnergy introduced an settlement with US main ExxonMobil to accumulate a 40-percent stake in a fuel exploration block off Egypt within the Mediterranean.
Observers say that the $5bn to be invested by Qatar within the coming years will contribute to Egypt’s financial improvement, enhance job creation there, and encourage Qatari personal funding within the nation.
