Sisi ends 2-hour meeting with American’s Trump

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ended a two-hour meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, where the two announced they would be cooperating in the fight against terrorism.

Sisi praised Trump’s unique personality and stressed Egypt’s support of the United States in the fight against terrorism, to which Trump said, “we will do that together.”

The Egyptian president is set to meet on Tuesday with Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Washington. He is also planned to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson as well as members of Congress, the Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported.

This is the first official visit by an Egyptian president to the White House since 2010, when Hosni Mubarak met with Barack Obama.

Rhetoric from the two leaders since Trump’s election in November has been warm, in contrast with relations under the administration of former US president Barack Obama, which grew strained after the ouster of Egypt’s Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

The Egyptian president was the first Arab leader to congratulate Trump on the phone after he was elected on 9 November, inviting him to visit Cairo.

In January, Trump said during a phone call with Sisi that his administration is committed to maintaining annual military aid to Egypt, praising Sisi’s efforts in the war against terrorism and extremism.

Egyptian Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr said in a TV interview on Monday that U.S. support of Egypt’s economic reform programme was one of the main points of discussion between the two presidents.

Egypt has introduced a number of fiscal reforms, including subsidy cuts and new taxes aimed at stemming a growing budget deficit.

Last November, the Egyptian Central Bank floated the Egyptian pound with the aim of alleviating a dollar shortage and attracting foreign investors.

President Trump’s administration had previously announced its support of Egypt’s economic reform plan as well as El-Sisi’s approach to counter terrorism

Source: Ahram online