Xi Visits Egypt As China Courts Key US Ally, Expands Middle East Footprint

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Egypt comes as the growing economic and strategic relationship between Beijing and Cairo takes on greater importance, with China seeking a larger role in a Middle East where the United States remains a key security partner.

Xi arrived in Cairo on Tuesday evening for a three-day visit and talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. It is Xi’s first visit to Egypt in a decade and his first trip to the Middle East since he visited Saudi Arabia in 2022. El-Sissi, meanwhile, has travelled to China several times in recent years.

Beyond the official focus on bilateral cooperation, the visit gives China an opportunity to deepen its ties with a country that occupies a strategically important position between the Middle East and Africa and controls the Suez Canal, a major global trade route.

Xi is also seeking to present China as a stabilising force in the region and draw a contrast with the United States, which has been deeply involved militarily in the Middle East, including its six-month war with Iran.

“China continues to build up its soft power reserves while the United States self-sabotages its own stock,” Amr Hamzawy, director of the Washington-based Carnegie Middle East Program, wrote in a paper earlier this year along with Kathryn Selfe, a former fellow at the program.

Economic ties have become central to China-Egypt relations

Xi was welcomed at Cairo airport by el-Sissi and military guards, with Chinese and Egyptian flags displayed for a red-carpet ceremony. The two leaders are scheduled to hold talks on Wednesday, while Xi is also expected to visit the Grand Egyptian Museum near the pyramids of Giza.

The visit comes as China and Egypt mark 70 years of diplomatic relations. On Tuesday, the two leaders published opinion pieces in Egypt’s state-run newspapers, stressing the importance of their relationship.

Xi wrote that Beijing and Cairo should “expand the scope of pragmatic collaboration” through development. El-Sissi praised Chinese investment in Egypt and reiterated Cairo’s support for China’s position that Taiwan is part of its territory.

China has invested more than $10 billion in Egypt, including in a business hub east of Cairo and an electric rail line serving industry in the Nile Delta. Annual trade between the two countries is estimated at $20 billion, according to government figures.

In 2024, Egypt also signed agreements with China to cooperate under the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi’s flagship policy for developing infrastructure and transport networks around the world.

According to Associated Press, Egypt’s expanding relationship with China is part of Cairo’s effort to diversify its strategic partnerships.

Egypt was invited to join BRICS in 2023. The grouping includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and is viewed as a counterweight to Western-led institutions such as the G7.

The scale of China-Egypt trade is also notable when compared with Egypt’s commercial relationship with Washington. Trade between the US and Egypt stood at $15.7 billion in 2025.

At the same time, Egypt remains a crucial US partner on national security priorities in the region, and the countries’ leaders maintain close ties. Cairo’s growing relationship with Beijing therefore adds another major partnership without displacing its longstanding relationship with Washington.

Suez Canal adds economic and strategic value

Egypt’s control of the Suez Canal adds to its economic and strategic importance for China, particularly as oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have been heavily disrupted by the Iran war. The Suez Canal offers an important alternative route for energy supplies leaving the region.

“China has good reason to strengthen ties with the country that controls the route still open,” said Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, a Middle East expert with Jakarta’s Center of Economic and Law Studies.

Xi views Egypt “as a base to reach the wider Arab and African world, at a time when the U.S. has less attention to spare there,” said Rakhmat.

China’s investments in Egypt, growing bilateral trade and cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative therefore sit alongside Beijing’s interest in Egypt’s geographical position and regional relationships.

Beijing has sought to position itself as a regional mediator

China’s engagement with Egypt comes as Beijing expands its relationships with countries across the Middle East.

In 2023, China brokered an agreement that restored diplomatic ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Iran is China’s most important regional ally and oil supplier, while Saudi Arabia has long been a US ally.

The agreement demonstrated China’s ambition to compete with the United States for influence in the Middle East. Since then, relations between Riyadh and Tehran have frayed. Iran attacked Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries as part of its retaliation against the US and Israel, which launched the war on February 28.

China has also maintained a position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, supporting a two-state solution that is widely viewed in the Arab world as central to regional stability.

Shortly before Hamas militants attacked Israel in 2023 and launched the war in Gaza, Xi hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and announced a “strategic partnership” with the Palestinian Authority.

According to Associated Press, China and Egypt held a multi-day air exercise in August at several bases across Egypt. It was the first-ever combat exercise involving China’s J-16 fighter jets and Egypt’s French-made Rafale fighters.

Xi arrives after SCO summit and amid pressure on Iran

Xi’s Egypt visit follows his participation in a two-day conference of the 10-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a political and security grouping billed as a counterweight to US global influence.

The leaders of Russia, India, Pakistan and Iran attended the conference in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.

The Egypt trip also comes after the Trump administration’s “economic onslaught” on Iran’s financial connections around the world. The sanctions are aimed at isolating Iran from its remaining economic partners, including China.

China buys more than 80 per cent of Iranian oil shipments, usually through indirect channels. Beijing says its trade with Iran has always complied with international law.

For Egypt, the relationship with Beijing provides a way to diversify its strategic partnerships while expanding investment, trade and infrastructure cooperation. For China, Egypt offers a major trade route and a base for reaching the wider Arab and African world.