El-Sisi made the remarks in a meeting on Tuesday in Cairo with Qatar's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

The meeting was attended by the head of Qatari State Security Abdullah Al-Khulaifi, Qatari Minister of Finance Ahmed El-Kuwari, and Qatar's Ambassador in Cairo Salem bin Mubarak Al-Shafi.

From the Egyptian side, Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Service (GIS) Abbas Kamel attended the meeting.

The Qatari FM affirmed to El-Sisi Doha's keenness to strengthen the firm brotherly relations with Egypt to enhance security and stability in the region, Egyptian presidential spokesman Bassam Rady said in a statement.

The top Qatari diplomat also praised the Egyptian president's efforts to boost joint Arab work and preserve security and peace on the regional level through the current critical stage and its growing challenges, the statement said.

Bin Abdulrahman also praised Egypt's pivotal role as a main pillar of security and stability in the Arab world as well as the Egyptian keenness to enhance solidarity between Arab countries and boost the joint Arab work.

The meeting discussed enhancing Egyptian-Qatari relations on the bilateral level in all fields and also reviewed the developments of the regional situations and issues of mutual concern.

For his part, El-Sisi underscored the connection between the security of the Gulf and Egypt’s national security, hailing the important role that the Qatari state is playing in the face of challenges facing the Arab nation.

In November, Egypt and Qatar signed agreements to supply fuel and basic construction materials to the Gaza Strip to contribute to improving living conditions after widespread destruction of the strip by Israeli bombardment last summer.

Egypt and Qatar have worked on strengthening their newly-restored bilateral relations and reaching common ground on regional issues since Egypt and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) signed the Al-Ula Declaration with Qatar in January 2021 ending years of a diplomatic rift.

In a press conference in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart on Monday, bin Abdulrahman discussed the situation in Libya, stressing that Qatar shares the same stance as Egypt regarding Libya.

He said Qatar, like Egypt, supports the political path in Libya as well as the outcomes of the international conferences on Libya held in Geneva and Berlin over the past years in an effort to have an impartial free election.

Economic, diplomatic cooperation

Egypt's Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and bin Abdulrahman, who is being accompanied by a high-level delegation during his Cairo visit, agreed in an extended meeting on Tuesday on a package of $5 billion in investments and partnerships in Egypt within "the framework of boosting economic cooperation between the two brotherly countries."

This comes a day after Shoukry and bin Abdulrahman announced a decision to establish a high joint committee between the two countries to boost cooperation and coordination in all fields as well as to continue consultations.

An Egyptian-Qatari follow-up committee – set up after the signing of the Ula agreement – has held seven rounds of negotiations over the past year, the last of which was in Doha last September, to develop the two countries' relations.

"The impurities that plagued the relations were removed through consensus on the statement of Al-Ula, the subsequent honest and sincere activation of the follow-up committee, and the positive results it reached," Shoukry said during the presser on Monday.

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