The President's invitation to Biarritz Summit is an appreciation of Egypt's role and its political and economic achievements.

Fighting terrorism, achieving global equality and renewing partnership with Africa top the agenda .

President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's visit to France (24-26 August) to participate in the summit of heads of state and government of the G7 has a special importance. This visit, paid at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, has a profound connotations in terms of bilateral relations between Egypt and France, the importance of this World Summit and its agenda, the Egyptian participation in it, and finally on the level of Egypt’s foreign policy and unprecedented strengthening of its position regionally and globally .

 According to a report edited by State Information Service (SIS), this is the fourth visit paid by President Abdel Fattah El - Sisi to France since he assumed office in 2014. The first visit was in November 2014 and the second one in November 2015. During the two visits, the President held important talks with the then French President François Hollande. The third visit of President Sisi to Paris was in October 2017, where he was received by French President Emmanuel Macron .

 On the other hand, President Hollande attended the inauguration ceremony of the new Suez Canal project in August 2016 and President Macron visited Cairo in January 2019 .

 The new visit of President El-Sisi to France adds to the long track record of Egypt and France’s historical, political, economic, military, and cultural relations. Besides, there are many important issues for the two parties in Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean region and internationally. Thus, the bilateral cooperation between them is very important.

 The participation of President El-Sisi in the 45th session of G7 Summit is of a great importance, because of  the political and economic influential role of this Group, which includes 7 of the world super powers, namely; France, Italy, Japan,   Germany, USA, Britain, Canada, and Russia, which may return to participate in Biarritz summit,  after it had stopped attending G7 since 2014 because of Ukraine crisis, as it was a former member of this group codenamed G8 Summit between 1998 and 2014 .

 At the same time, the agenda of the G7, held in the French city Biarritz, includes many topics, where Egypt ’s participation is important and useful to Egypt, Africa and the world .

 The summit is being held under the title “Fighting Inequalities”.  Paris chairs the Group after Canada. According to what is published on Élysée website, the agenda of the summit comprises five priorities:

·     Combating inequalities by promoting gender equality in access to education and good health services .

·     Reducing environmental inequalities through the protection of the Earth through benefiting from finance dedicated to  climate activities  and reasonable environmental use that focuses on the conservation of biodiversity and oceans .

·     Working for peace and combating security and terrorist threats that undermine the pillars of our societies .

·        Seizing the opportunities offered by the digital field and artificial intelligence in a  human-centered ethical manner.

·        Renewing partnership with Africa in a more fair way. No doubt that Egypt has an illustrious participation in all these subjects, a significant role and a national interest as well.

Egypt leads in exerting efforts for “spreading peace and combating security and terrorist threats”. Egypt, being President of the African Union and its regained leading role in the African Continent, is concerned with “renewing partnership with Africa in a more fair way.” President Sisi, in all forums, is keen on presenting the status of the African continent as well as defending its lawful right for peace, security, stability, development and international cooperation for the sake of a better future for all its peoples.

Meantime, Egypt, which battles for a comprehensive and continuous development, is strongly concerned with the issues of climate, fair use of modern digital technology for development for all world peoples. No doubt that the Egyptian state, which has recently taken great steps in the field of enabling women, equality and eradicating all forms of discrimination, has a lot to present before such varied-agenda-summit.   

The 19^th Summit of the President in a Year

On the third level, SIS report shows that Egypt’s participation in this summit is a great addition for a magnified record of global appreciation for Egypt, leadership and policies in its regional circumference, African continent and the world.

This is the 19^th summit, attended by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi since the beginning of his second presidential term on 8/6/2018, i.e, within less than 15 months only.

It was interesting that a large number of these summits, Egypt is not a member of it, but it was invited to such as this summit, due to the importance of its role, wise policies and the achievements of its people in security, economy and international cooperation, even.

President El-Sisi chaired about 7 of these summits during this period that witnessed two African summits headed by Egypt in Ethiopia and Niger, two Arab summits in Tunisia and Mecca and Arab-European summit in Sharm El-Sheikh in addition to two summits concerning Libya and Sudan. Also, there were an Islamic summit in Mecca, G20 summit in Tokyo, Chinese-African summit in China and European-African summit in Austria, Munich conference for security in Germany in addition to the Mini-Summit of African leaders; members of the German initiative for partnership with Africa in the framework of G20 that held in Germany. In addition, there are the UN General Assembly session and other international summits in New York as well as a number of multilateral summits such as the Egyptian-Jordanian- Iraqi summit, Egyptian-Jordanian-Palestinian summit, and Egyptian-Greek-Cypriot summit, and others.

Egypt's high international profile reflects its incumbent position, the world's interest in its role and attention to listen to it. In all these forums, Egypt's voice was strong to explain its policy, stances, defence of its people, region and Africa.

Egypt and France: Growing Relations

On the Egyptian-French relations, SIS report states that the Egyptian- French relations have a distinguished status, acquired from the two countries' joint political understanding through the Mediterranean or in the African continent, where Egypt plays a key role and France has a historical concern. The two countries have a history of ongoing cultural interaction because Egypt is a member of Francophone and presented its first chairman Dr. Boutros Boutros Ghali.

Moreover, Egypt and France have a historical ties that date back to late the 18^th century, exactly with the French Expedition, which left many affects on many Egyptian life features.

Since President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi had assumed power, the bilateral relations have witnessed a boom and rapprochement in the stances towards the region's issues topped by the Palestinian Question, the Libyan and Syrian crises and other heated files especially extension of terrorism and the ceaseless tension in the areas which affect the two countries' national security, and peace and security, in Sahel and Sahara, besides the increasing rate of illegal immigration and their key roles in Africa. 

France is considered one of the most important arms suppliers to Egypt, as Egypt got the Mirag aircraft in the 1970s and the current big deals including two Mistral helicopter carriers, Fremme frigate and Gwind-Class Corvette, in addition to the joint ground and naval military exercises codenamed "Clespatra", "Nefertari" air exercises,"Ramises" and the multi-national "Bright Star".

Growing Egyptian Exports

According to SIS report, economic cooperation is one of the most significant features of bilateral relations. France has been playing a major role in a number of huge projects in Egypt since 1970 until now, notably Cairo underground metro, Egypt Nile Sat, mobile phone network and many others. The French investments in Egypt reached more than 4 billion euros in the fields of farm processing, information technology, construction, renewable energy, transport and communication, water desalination, infrastructure and tourism.

The trade exchange witnessed a remarkable growth, valued now at $ 3 billion including $ one billion of Egyptian exports to France.

Egypt's main exports are oil, natural gas, fertilizers, ready-made clothes, textiles, plastic products, vegetables and fruits and ceramics. The imports are wheat, cereals, equipment, electronic machines, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and cars.

No doubt that President Sisi's current visit will give a momentum to these ceaseless relations in all fields.