German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is paying a two-day visit to Egypt from 10 to 12 September marking the first visit of a German president to the country in 24 years.

The visit aims to “strengthen the longstanding partnership in education, science, and business and to deepen bilateral relations, particularly given Egypt’s significant role in regional foreign and security policy, especially as a mediator amid current Middle Eastern crises,” according to the German Embassy in Cairo.

The itinerary of the visit, according to the embassy, includes a meeting with President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi followed by a joint press conference. He will also visit key collaborative projects including the New Capital High Speed Rail station.

Cultural exploration will also be a highlight, featuring historic sites like Sakkara and the Islamic City, along with engagements at educational institutions such as the German International University (GIU) and the Deutsche Schule in Kairo (DSB), one of the oldest acknowledged German schools outside Germany.

Ayman Zaineldine, former Egyptian ambassador, notes that the fact that the visit is by the German president and not the chancellor means that this will be a symbolic visit. The goals of the visit will be to show Germany’s interest in strengthening its ties with Egypt and sending messages about the strength of bilateral relations but not about making decisions on the executive level, he said.

“In most cases, German presidential visits include business delegations to promote economic interests rather than political action,” Zaineldine said. Steinmeier will be accompanied by a delegation of German businessmen pursuing investment opportunities in Egypt, according to a statement by the Egyptian cabinet.

Commenting on the timing of the visit, Zaineldine said that it comes as Germany realises that its pro-Israel bias on the situation in Gaza has negatively affected its image in the Arab world.

“Its strong bias and support for Israel contradicts the world’s perception of it as a country committed to the values of justice, humanity, respect for the law, and non-use of force in international relations,” he explained.

Germany condemned Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October last year, as did most of the Western powers. But the subsequent atrocities carried out by the Israeli occupation forces, reaching the level of genocide, have not changed the German support for Israel.

“At this moment, there is only one place for Germany: alongside Israel,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, on 12 October 2023. He added that “Israel’s security is a ‘reason of state’ for Germany,” referring to Germany’s fundamental national interest.

Eleven months later, according to Zaineldine, nothing has changed. He noted that Germany’s statements on the issue are vague and never condemn Israel. The most the German Foreign Ministry says is that “the situation in the Palestinian cities is unacceptable,” he noted.

A commentary published in May by the website of the state-owned German broadcaster Deutsche Welle explained that Germany sees a special responsibility for Israel, which the Zionist Movement founded as a Jewish state just three years after “Germany’s systematic murder of six million European Jews and many other groups in the Holocaust.”

“That makes Germany’s commitment to Israel more than just a policy goal; it is a fundamental part of the country’s sense of self,” the piece said.

However, Germany and Egypt have managed to arrive at many points of agreement. Egypt is one of the largest importers of German weapons, buying 4.3 billion euros worth of weapons in 2021 alone, for example.

“Germany has an edge in certain weapons that the Egyptian army needs like submarines, which is why a high percentage of German exports to Egypt are submarines,” according to Zaineldine.

Egypt acquired four diesel-electric submarines from Germany between December 2016 and August 2021.

In addition to submarines, Cairo imports German-made battleships and patrol boats, as well as missiles and rockets, torpedoes, fire control instruments, sighting devices, and air and missile defence systems.

The two countries have also shown cooperation in dealing with the refugee problems in the region. While Germany is not a Mediterranean-facing European country like Italy, France, or Greece, which usually receive refugees by sea, its role in dealing with the problem of refugees heading to the EU is pivotal, said Zaineldine.

Germany is the largest EU country in terms of the size of its population and economy, making it a favourite final destination for refugees targeting the EU. Germany and Egypt signed an Agreement on Bilateral Dialogue on Migration in August 2017 in which the two countries seek to work together to tackle the reasons why some people migrate illegally to Europe and stressed the importance of investing in professional training for young people.

The agreement includes both closer economic cooperation and support for the Egyptian education sector and additional scholarships for young Egyptians to study in Germany.

On the economic level, the German trade exchange grew from 5,5 billion euros in 2022 to 6,8 billion euros in 2023, despite the challenges with foreign exchange liquidity.

Following a sharp decline in the number of German tourist trips to Egypt during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, the number of German entries to the country rose substantially again in 2022 to approximately 1.3 million visitors,” said the German Foreign Ministry website.

“This meant that Germans were again the largest group of foreign tourists to Egypt in 2022, as they were prior to the pandemic.”

With 1.6 billion euros in loans and subsidies focusing on employment to foster sustainable economic development, including private-sector development, the water sector and waste management, and renewable energy and energy efficiency in Egypt, the country “is one of the largest partner countries of German development cooperation,” the website said.

Siemens Mobility is currently implementing a historic project to build a new 2,000 km high-speed rail network stretching all the way from Marsa Matrouh to Ain Sokhna, Safaga, and Abu Simbel. Other new investments are a state-of-the-art household appliances factory by Bosch Siemens Home Appliances in 10th of Ramadan City to be ready by end of this year, and a new container terminal in Damietta by Eurogate and Hapag Lloyd, which will be a new hub for transshipment for the Eastern Mediterranean starting 2025.

An Egyptian cabinet statement released last week pointed out that German investments in Egypt are distributed among 1,620 companies working in all economic sectors and helping in the transfer of technology and employing thousands of workers.

The statement quoted Alexis Bello, head of the Economic Department at the German Embassy in Cairo, as saying that his country plans to rely increasingly on energy supplies from renewable sources in Egypt, especially the green hydrogen sector.

Egypt has made great strides in this sector by launching a strategy and law regulating incentives, which qualifies it to approach its goal of covering eight per cent of global green hydrogen needs, he said, stressing the German side’s interest in supporting development efforts in Egypt, whether by providing financing or pumping in new investments.

German companies investing in the field of energy, especially renewables and green hydrogen, have made headlines in Egypt during the last couple of years.

“Europe in general and Germany in particular are very invested in moving from fossil fuels to cleaner and more sustainable renewable energy sources,” commented Zaineldine. Egyptian and German cooperation in the renewable energy sector goes back to the early 1990s, when Germany was involved in the planning for the Zaafarana Wind Farms as well as helping in solar energy research, he added.

In July, H2Global, an initiative funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), chose a 397 million euro bid by the Emirati Fertiglobe Group to provide the EU with green ammonia produced in its Egyptian facility between 2027 and 2033 and securing 10 per cent of Germany’s annual ammonia needs.

This came almost a year after Egypt signed a debt-swap agreement with Germany under which the latter would forgo 54 million in Egyptian debt, provided that Egypt used the equivalent sum in local currency to finance the project to link two 500 Megawatt wind farms to the electrical grid, helping it to achieve its pledge to generate 42 per cent of all electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

During his visit this week, the German President is set to inspect the revamping of the fish market in Gezirat Al-Dahab in Giza, which is being financed by GIZ, the German Corporation for International Cooperation, a development agency.

The project aims to enhance the efficiency and quality of the local fish market by upgrading the stalls, enhancing the overall circulation, upgrading the infrastructure utilities networks, improving the garbage collection, enhancing the look of the interior and exterior of the space, and exploring the option of adding new services and facilities.

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* A version of this article appears in print in the 12 September, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly