El-Sisi starts Africa tour in Angola

Angola President Joao Lourenco and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi seen in Luanda on Jun. 7, 2023, at the start of their meeting. (AFP)

• Lourenco said that the relations between the two countries were important
• During the tour, El-Sisi will hold a series of talks with the leaders on cooperation and address concerns on the continent

CAIRO: Abdel Fattah El-Sisi arrived on Wednesday in Angola at the start of a tour that also includes Zambia and Mozambique.
El-Sisi, the first Egyptian president to visit Angola, met his counterpart Joao Lourenco in Luanda and witnessed the signing of a number of agreements between the two countries.
Lourenco said that the relations between the two countries were important.
Ahmad Fahmy, a spokesman for the Egyptian presidency, said that El-Sisi’s tour in southern Africa shows the country is “keen to intensify communication and coordination with its African brothers and to cultivate closer cooperation at the economic, trade, and investment levels.”
During the tour, El-Sisi will hold a series of talks with the leaders on cooperation and address concerns on the continent.
El-Sisi will attend the 22nd summit of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa during his visit to the Zambian capital, Lusaka. Zambia is taking the rotating chairmanship from Egypt.
In April, Ahmed Samir, Egypt’s minister of trade and industry, announced that the volume of trade exchange between Egypt and the African markets amounted to $2.117 billion during the first quarter of this year.
The value of Egypt’s exports to Angola increased in 2022 by 14.4 percent compared to the year 2012, according to a statement from the central agency for public mobilization and statistics.
Egypt’s exports to Angola in 2022 amounted to $22.9 million, compared to $20 million in 2021.