McKenzie embarked on a visit to Egypt on Wednesday as part of his tour to the Middle East, which included Bahrain and the UAE. He held a meeting with Egyptian Minister of Defence Mohamed Zaki.

“I believe that Egypt is very interested in moving to face the new threats,” McKenzie said, referring to threats including cyber-warfare.

“Egypt has people in the region that are not their friends, they want to work against Egypt,” McKenzie said, affirming that the country needs to be prepared to defend itself.

McKenzie said Egypt is in many ways the “cultural, historical, and geographic centre of the Arab world... and so Egypt is very important to us.”

The CENTCOM chief hailed his meeting earlier on Wednesday with Minister of Defence Mohamed Zaki as “very good and productive,” noting that their discussions tackled the “enduring strategic nature of the relationship between the US and Egypt and how important Egypt is to the United States and the US Central Command.”

McKenzie discussed with Zaki enhancing military cooperation and conducting joint exercises, Egyptian military spokesman Gharib Abdel-Hafez said in a statement.