Chinese Premier Li Qiang arrived in Egypt for a two-day visit, seeking to deepen ties with a BRICS ally that has long been a US defense partner.
Li’s trip comes two months after Cairo and Beijing carried out their first joint military exercises, notably with Chinese aircraft taking part.
China has in recent years forged industrial and defense ties with several North African nations, and Egypt has been cautiously receptive to Beijing’s overtures, frustrated with US pullbacks but wary of growing too close to a country that many in the region view as excessively transactional.
“It’s worth considering at what point all of these transactions start to add up to something more,” a China-Middle East analyst noted.
AD