The visit comes just a few hours after he met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who paid a two-day visit to Cairo in the first leg of his Middle East tour. During his visit, Blinken met with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Shoukry to discuss a host of regional issues.

While in Russia, Shoukry is scheduled to review the progress made in implementing the Egyptian-Russian cooperation projects with a host of Russian officials – including his counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.

Both sides will also consult and exchange views on several international and regional issues of common interests, including the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and its repercussions, said Abu Zeid.

In July 2022, Lavrov met Shoukry in Cairo as part of his African tour, discussing a host of regional and international issues, including the Ukraine crisis.

A liaison group formed in March during the 157th session of the Council of the Arab League to tackle the impacts of the Ukraine crisis on the Arab region, included Egypt alongside Jordan, Algeria, Iraq, Sudan and the UAE. In April, the liaison group held talks with Russia’s Lavrov in Moscow and Ukrainian FM Dmytro Kuleba in Warsaw in an attempt to forge a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Egypt has repeatedly called for a political solution to the crisis based on dialogue and warned of the global crisis’ impact on the Arab countries at the political, security and economic levels.