MOSCOW — With Moscow thinking about its post-Syria presence in the Middle East, building stronger ties with Egypt seems to be on the agenda.
On Aug. 21, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry visited the Russian capital to meet with his counterpart Sergey Lavrov. Prior to the visit, both parties sent strong and courteous signals of the importance of the encounter. Cairo emphasized that Moscow would be the first stop on Shoukry’s three-day trip, which included Lithuania and Estonia, while Moscow had been saying that Egypt is one of Russia’s leading partners in the Middle East and North Africa and that the two countries have been bound together by yearslong traditions of friendship, mutually beneficial cooperation and concurrence of approaches to regional and international issues.