Egyptian President El-Sisi due in Riyadh today

RIYADH: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will start an official visit to Saudi Arabia on Sunday in an effort to strengthen bilateral ties.
The summit-level talks are primarily aimed at tackling bilateral and regional issues on which the two countries have had divergent views. This comes after talks between El-Sisi and King Salman on the sidelines of last month’s Arab League Summit in Jordan.
The current talks will reiterate the need to “maintain joint coordination, which contributes to enhance relations in various fields, and discuss ways to deal with the challenges facing the Arab nation,” said a statement from the Egyptian presidency on Friday.
Egyptian Ambassador Nasser Hamdy said El-Sisi’s entourage “will be composed of a large number of high-ranking Egyptian officials including ministers.”
The two-day visit will mainly focus on security, terrorism and key regional issues, Hamdy added.
The visit comes at the invitation of King Salman. Hamdy said ministerial meetings will take place on the sidelines of the summit.
The visit comes after Saudi Aramco resumed deliveries of petroleum products to Egypt, which were suspended last October when Egypt voted for a Russian-drafted UN Security Council resolution on Syria.
In April last year, King Salman made a four-day visit to Egypt and committed additional funds to keep Egypt’s economy afloat.
The Kingdom at the time announced a fresh round of large investments in Egypt, with a focus on infrastructure and energy security.
Saudi Arabia has created a $16 billion investment fund that includes development of Egypt’s Sinai region, and the potential to build a bridge between Egypt and the Kingdom over the Red Sea at an expected cost of $3-$4 billion.
By the end of February 2016, 3,744 Saudi companies had invested some $6.1 billion in Egypt. Since then, another $4 billion have been committed to Egypt by Saudi companies.