Egypt's Sisi arrives in Athens to attend tripartite summit with Greek, Cyprus counterparts
Ahram Online, , Tuesday 8 Dec 2015


Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi arrived in Athens on Tuesday to hold talks with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades.

The three top officials will be attending a tripartite summit on Wednesday to discuss forms of cooperation between Cairo, Athens and Nicosia, which will be the third meeting held between the three heads of state since the election of El-Sisi as president in 2014.

In April, El-Sisi accepted a proposal by Tsipras over forming a committee for redrawing the maritime borders between the three countries.

Egypt and Cyprus had signed an agreement in December 2013 over developinghydrocarbon reserves along the maritime border between both countries in the Exclusive Economic Zone.

In November 2014, the first summit took place in Cairo and was attended by El-Sisi, Anastasiades and former Greek Prime MinisterAntonis Samaras, in which they agreed on a partnership between Egypt and the European Union through using the two countries as intermediaries.

El-Sisi's schedule in this visit includes attending an Egyptian-Greek businessmen's summit in Athens to discuss economic cooperation and development between the two countries, particularly in regards to the energy sector, as well as holding talks with the Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament Nikos Voutsis, and will meet with Greece's Minister of Defence Panos Kammenos to discuss Egyptian-Greek military and security cooperation, with a focus on the threat of terrorism in the region.

Meanwhile,Egyptian navy and air forces have left for Greece to participate in the joint Egyptian-Greek air military exercise Meidoza 2015, which will last for several days.

In May, Greece’s Hellenic air force units performed in Egypt for the military exercise Horus 2015, where Egyptian, Greek and Cyprus naval forces conducted a joint practice drill in the Mediterranean.

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