Egypt's Sisi visits Saudi Arabia amid economic crunch, regional realignment

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el Sisi visited Saudi Arabia, Saudi state news agency SPA reported on Monday, as Cairo seeks financial inflows to ease pressure on its currency and bolster a faltering economy.

The visit comes amid a major diplomatic realignment in the region, with moves by Saudi Arabia and Egypt to ease tensions with Syria, Iran and Türkiye.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has long provided financial support to Egypt but recently signalled it would no longer provide such backing without conditions attached, which observers think may have sparked a rare media clash between the two countries.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's de facto ruler, met on Sunday with Sisi at the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah, where they discussed bilateral ties and regional developments, SPA reported.

Other Saudi and Egyptian officials, including Saudi national security adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al Aiban and Egypt's intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, attended the meeting, it added.

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Friendly  investments

Saudi Arabia and its some Gulf allies have repeatedly come to Egypt's help since Sisi led the ouster of the former president Mohamed Morsi a decade ago.

When Egypt's financial difficulties were exposed and exacerbated by the fallout from the war in Ukraine last year, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar made deposits in Egypt's central bank and pledged major new investments.

But those investments have been slow to materialise, putting new pressure on the Egyptian pound in recent weeks despite the currency's losing nearly half its value against the dollar since March 2022.

Egypt signed a $3 billion rescue plan with the International Monetary Fund in December that targeted $9.7 billion in foreign direct investment in the financial year ending in June 2023.

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