Xi makes first Egypt visit in a decade, deepening trade and military ties with Cairo

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Cairo on September 1 for his first visit to Egypt in a decade, opening two days of talks with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi that produced a new round of industrial investment, an expanded currency arrangement and a joint military air exercise, as Cairo works to deepen ties with Beijing without breaking from Washington.

The visit, Xi's first to Egypt since 2016, coincided with the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Egypt was the first Arab and African nation to establish formal ties with the People's Republic of China, in 1956. Xi and Sisi met on September 2 at Cairo's Ittihadiya Palace, where Egyptian forces gave the Chinese leader a 21-gun salute before a day of talks that China's foreign ministry said covered infrastructure, energy, agriculture, the digital economy and aerospace. The two leaders, joined by their wives Peng Liyuan and Entissar el-Sisi, later attended a state banquet hosted by the Egyptian president.

The talks produced a joint statement on deepening what Beijing calls a "comprehensive strategic partnership," along with a batch of agreements and memoranda covering trade, technology, education and transport, building on a five-year cooperation plan the two governments adopted in 2024.

Deals across the Suez Canal zone

The centerpiece economic announcement was a new phase of the China-Egypt TEDA industrial park at Ain Sokhna, inside the Suez Canal Economic Zone. The park, part of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, already hosts roughly 200 Chinese-linked companies with investments exceeding $4 billion and has generated more than 10,000 direct jobs. Sisi announced the expansion in a public appearance alongside Xi.

"I take this opportunity to announce the agreement to launch the third phase of expansions of the Egyptian-Chinese industrial zone in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, which launches a new phase of business in key sectors such as renewable energy, automobile manufacturing, textiles and chemical fibres," Sisi told reporters in Cairo.

The two governments also reaffirmed an expanded currency-swap arrangement between their central banks. The People's Bank of China and the Central Bank of Egypt had already enlarged the facility this past June, from 18 billion yuan (about $2.65 billion) to 30 billion yuan (roughly $4.4 billion) for a renewable three-year term, according to China's State Council Information Office. Xi and Sisi welcomed the enlarged facility at the summit and pledged to push more trade and investment into settlement in yuan and Egyptian pounds rather than the dollar.

Bilateral trade reached $20.7 billion in 2025, and stood at $11.3 billion in the first half of 2026, up 21.5 percent year-on-year, according to figures cited by Arab News. The relationship remains heavily lopsided: Egyptian exports to China, mostly fuel, minerals, produce and cotton, jumped nearly 200 percent to $840.8 million in the first half of the year, while Chinese imports into Egypt — machinery, vehicles, metals and chemicals — totaled $10.4 billion over the same period, leaving China with a trade surplus of roughly $12 billion through the first seven months of 2026. Chinese firms have put more than $10 billion into Egypt to date, including the central business district of Egypt's New Administrative Capital east of Cairo, built by China State Construction Engineering Corporation and anchored by the 385.8-meter Iconic Tower, now Africa's tallest building, plus an electric rail line in the Nile Delta, container-port projects and green-hydrogen facilities.

Fighter jets and a widening military footprint

The diplomacy ran alongside a joint air exercise. Egyptian and Chinese air forces have been running the second edition of "Eagles of Civilisation," a combined drill that started in mid-August and continued through Xi's visit. It marked the first time Chinese J-16 fighter jets have deployed to Africa, supported by Y-20 aerial-refueling tankers, training alongside Egyptian Rafale and MiG-29 aircraft in joint air-combat exercises — a level of interoperability well beyond earlier, smaller-scale China-Egypt drills.

Egypt joined the BRICS bloc in 2023 and has steadily broadened its security and economic relationships with Beijing even as it remains one of the largest recipients of American military assistance in the region. Analysts covering the visit, including at Al Jazeera, have framed it as part of a broader recalibration among Washington's traditional Middle Eastern partners, who have looked to diversify their economic and security relationships since a six-month war between the United States, Israel and Iran disrupted regional trade and oil markets this year.

A joint stance on Gaza, Taiwan and the Nile

The joint statement issued after the talks addressed several regional disputes directly. On Gaza, the two governments called the Palestinian cause "the central issue in the Middle East," demanded the "immediate consolidation" of the ceasefire there, unimpeded humanitarian access and a return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza "at the earliest opportunity," while rejecting "any plans to displace Palestinians from their land under any pretext or label" and voicing concern over Israeli settler violence and settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to reporting on the text.

On the Nile, China backed Egypt's long-running position in its dispute with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, with the statement recognizing the river's "vital importance to Egypt as its main lifeline" and Cairo's "legitimate right to protect its water and food security," and calling on all Nile Basin states to observe international law, "including the obligation not to cause harm." In return, Egypt reaffirmed the one-China principle, describing Taiwan as "an inseparable part of the territory of the People's Republic of China" and backing Beijing's goal of reunification — a diplomatic endorsement China has been seeking more explicitly from Global South partners.

Xi also used the visit to lay out a broader vision for regional security, telling his hosts that outside powers should stay out of Middle Eastern affairs.

"We must uphold the principle that the people of the Middle East are the masters of their own affairs, oppose external interference," Xi said, adding that China "stands ready to work with countries in the region to safeguard the security of international shipping lanes," according to Al Jazeera's account of his remarks.

Egypt's balancing act

The agreements signed this week will be felt most directly by the roughly 200 companies and thousands of workers already tied to the Suez industrial zone, and by Egyptian exporters and manufacturers who stand to benefit from the new industrial phase and looser currency-settlement rules. More broadly, the visit is being watched across the Gulf and North Africa as a signal of how far China intends to press its Middle East ambitions at a moment when, as several regional outlets have noted, six months of conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran have strained Washington's standing with traditional allies.

For his part, Sisi struck a conciliatory note on China's regional role. In the Chinese government's own account of the meeting, the Egyptian leader "highly commends the Chinese side for all along taking an objective and impartial position on the Middle East issue," a formulation that underscores Cairo's interest in keeping Beijing engaged as a counterweight, even as it maintains its decades-old security relationship with the United States and continues to receive American military financing.

Xi's Cairo stop capped a longer trip that began August 30 in Kyrgyzstan, where he attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, before continuing to Egypt for the state visit that concluded September 2. Implementation now shifts to the technical level: Egyptian and Chinese ministries are expected to finalize terms for the Suez zone's third phase and put the enlarged currency-swap facility into wider use in the coming months, while the joint statement's language on Gaza, the Nile and Taiwan is likely to shape how the two governments coordinate at the United Nations and within BRICS in the run-up to the bloc's next major gatherings later this year.