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| Saudi Arabia's King Salman and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi (Image: Daily Mail) |
Saudi Arabia's
King Salman Bin Abdel-Aziz arrives in Cairo, Egypt, on Thursday, 7 April, in
his first official visit to the biggest Northern African state since he
ascended to the Saudi throne in January 2015.
The visit of
Saudi monarch is expect to last for five days and was already called a
"historic visit" by both Egyptian and Saudi Arabian officials.
Saudi King
Salman was greeted by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi upon his arrival
on Thursday. Egyptian President and Saudi King had an official meeting and a
plenary session on Friday, 8 April, aimed to discuss regional political,
economic and social issues and also bilateral relations and economic
cooperation. During Salman's visit to Egypt the heads of two states are
expected to sign four funding accords worth roughly $22 billion, and these
accords are expected to come into effect on Friday.
The press
conference followed the Friday meeting of Mr. El-Sisi and Saudi King. King
Salman also is expected to visit the session of Egyptian Parliament on Sunday,
10 April, while this visit was called as an important and "historic"
by the Speaker of Egyptian Parliament Soliman Wahdan.
During the
Friday meeting between the leaders of the two countries eight different agreements
and treaties were signed in different fields ranging from housing to
electricity.
King Salman and
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi declared after their meeting that the
two countries signed an agreement to construct a bridge over the Red Sea to
connect Egypt with Saudi Arabia and to enable easier transportation and trade
between the two countries. Mr. Sisi said that the bridge that will be named
after the Saudi Arabia's King Salman Bin Abdel-Aziz will connect the African
and Asia continents and will help to support and develop export and cooperation
between Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The project of
the bridge over the Red Sea to connect Egypt and Saudi Arabia appeared many
years ago though it didn't get enough support and was postponed several times due
to the environmental issues, as construction of such a bridge threatens the
rare corals of the Red Sea and could lead to the real ecological catastrophe.
In addition to
the agreement regarding construction of the Red Sea bridge the heads of the two
countries also signed the agreements regarding cooperation in several other
fields including the establishment of the University of the King Salman in the
Tour city in South Sinai, renovation of Egypt's largest and one of the oldest
public hospital Qasr El-Aini, a large electricity project in Western Cairo,
building of housing units in Sinai, an agreement regarding peaceful use of
nuclear energy, an agreement to avoid double taxation and prevent of tax
evasion with respect to taxes on income, cooperation in maritime and ports
field and demarcation of the maritime borders between the two countries.
A number of
memorandums of understanding were also signed in the fields of electricity,
housing, agriculture, trade and export, industry, prevention of corruption and
labor. In addition to that the countries also signed agreements for three joint
programs in the fields of culture, education and media.
Saudi Arabia's
King Salman Bin Abdel-Aziz previously visited Egypt in March 2015 during the
Arab League Summit held in the Red Sea city of Sharm El-Sheikh.
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