Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman meets with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi on Sunday, 4 March, in a two-day visit to Cairo.
This visit comes ahead of a scheduled trip to the UK and the US from 19 to 22 March as the Crown Prince’s first maiden overseas tour.
These trips aim partly at pursuing investors, following major sweeping changes and a crackdown on royals.
The Prince’s visit to Cairo comes before Egypt’s presidential elections in late March, which El-Sisi is likely to win a second four-year term.
"Prince Mohammed's visit will be interpreted as proof of Saudi support for El-Sisi to remain as the president of Egypt in the coming term," political science professor at Cairo University Mostafa Kamel El-Sayed told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The Crown Prince said that his choice of Egypt as the first of his maiden foreign tour "reaffirms Saudi-Egyptian cooperation at the highest level", according to a Saudi government source.
Both parties are expected to talk over the regional rival Iran, the conflict in Yemen, counter-terrorism, and energy cooperation, the source said.
Prince Mohammed is also projected to visit France in the coming weeks.
Saudi Arabia considers Egypt as a key regional ally as the North African state bolsters the kingdom in a war against Houthi rebels in Yemen and joined the GCC states’ diplomatic boycott of Qatar last year over alleged ties to Islamic extremists and Iran. Qatar denies the accusations.
