This came at a joint press conference, in which El-Sisi welcomed Estonia's continued support for priority issues to Egypt within European Union (EU) institutions.

“Our discussions emphasized the importance of exchanging expertise in issues such as counterterrorism and organized crime, including the smuggling of illegal migrants,” he said.

The Egyptian president said that regional and international issues, especially the Palestinian issue, were strongly present in his discussions with his Estonian counterpart.

“The Palestinian issue topped the regional issues that I discussed with His Excellency, as Egypt views it as the core of the region’s issues,” he said. They reviewed Egypt’s diligent efforts to halt Israel’s unjustified and continuous escalation in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as the widening scope of Israeli attacks to include Yemen and Syria.

 El-Sisi stressed the need for concerted efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire and prevent the region from sliding into a full-scale regional conflict, underlining the importance of establishing a sovereign Palestinian state along the 4 June 1967 borders as a cornerstone for stability in the Middle East.

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi with Estonia’s President Alar Karis during the welcoming ceremony in Cairo, Egypt. Photo courtesy Egyptian Presidential Spokesman.

The two leaders’ discussions also touched on several regional and international matters, mainly Libya, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, the security of the Red Sea, the Russia-Ukraine war, and food and energy security.

Economic cooperation
 

“We agreed on the need to intensify international efforts to address these crises and find peaceful solutions to ongoing conflicts, as well as fostering peace and stability,” El-Sisi said.

He said that Egypt and Estonia were interested in strengthening economic, trade, and investment ties and that was reflected in his Estonian counterpart’s keenness to bring a delegation of Estonian businesspeople and investors to explore cooperation opportunities, particularly in the energy, mining, education, and food industry sectors.

El-Sisi said these new opportunities for collaboration should be commensurate with the ongoing and growing collaboration in communications and information technology and digital transformation — a field in which Estonia has outstanding expertise.

“During our talks today, there was alignment on the importance of maintaining regular political consultations and technical visits to provide the necessary momentum for relations across various fields and explore multiple areas of cooperation, including technical training, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity,” El-Sisi said. He also discussed ways to enhance trilateral cooperation in Africa to serve the common interests of all parties.

For his side, President Alar Karis confirmed on Wednesday that his country is keen to strengthen cooperation with Egypt in various fields, especially in the energy sector. 

Karis stated during a press conference with President El-Sisi at the Ittihadiya Palace that the main goal of his visit to Egypt is to enhance relations between the two countries and create more opportunities for collaboration, particularly in the areas of transportation, energy, defence, health, technology, mining, and engineering. 

He also highlighted the Estonian government's interest in building educational relationships between the oldest universities in Estonia and Egyptian universities. 

Karis explained that the discussions with President El-Sisi included security issues in Europe and the Middle East, emphasizing that the collapse of the international system has affected the entire world.

He further stated that Estonia believes the United Nations Security Council needs reform to better represent all regions and areas. 

The Estonian president also called on the international community and Egypt to join his country’s efforts to resolve the Russia-Ukraine crisis, expressing his appreciation for Egypt’s efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully. 

Karis praised Egypt’s efforts for peace in the Middle East, warning that ongoing conflicts represent serious concerns towards people's lives and stressing that Estonia values Egypt's role as a mediator and peacemaker in the region, supporting the two-state solution as the only way to achieve lasting peace. 

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi with Estonia’s President Alar Karis during their meeting in Cairo, Egypt. Photo courtesy Egyptian Presidential Spokesman.

Karis further emphasized the need to increase aid to Gaza and to support the UN in its work with Palestinian refugees, noting that his country has called for support for UN missions, UNICEF, and the World Food Programme this year, and has provided aid through the Grain Initiative to supply grain to countries in need. 

Karis, who is visiting Egypt for the first time as a president, praised Cairo’s role as a key partner for the European Union and NATO, affirming that this partnership forms a solid foundation for cooperation in trade, security, and stability in the region.

Egyptian-Estonian economic relations in numbers
 

According to the latest report released by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) on Wednesday outlining the economic relations between Egypt and Estonia, the trade between the two countries reached $26.5 million during the first nine months in 2024, up from $22.5 million in the same period in 2023.

Egypt's exports to Estonia totalled $3.5 million in the first nine months in 2024, which was slightly lower than $3.6 million during the same period in 2023.

The main Egyptian exports to Estonia included plastics and its products, glass and its products, and salt and pure sodium chloride.

Additionally, Egypt exported miscellaneous food preparations and inorganic chemicals.

On the other hand, Egyptian imports from Estonia reached $23 million during the first nine months of 2024, showing an increase from $18.9 million in 2023.

The top imports from Estonia included electrical and mechanical machinery and paper and paperboard products.

Regarding investments, Estonian investments in Egypt totalled $100,000 during the first nine months of FY2023/2024, a decrease from $200,000 in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

 As for remittances, Egyptians working in Estonia sent home $610,000 during FY2022/2023, an increase from $549,000 in the previous fiscal year.

Conversely, remittances from Estonians working in Egypt were $223,000 during FY2022/2023, a decrease from $254,000 the year before.