Japanese and Egyptian Foreign Ministers to meet in Cairo

Yoshimasa Hayashi on a tour of region that also saw him visit the Jordanian capital Amman

Japan's Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi also met Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi on Monday to discuss wider financial and economic co-operation. AFP

Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi will meet Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Tuesday to discuss ways to boost bilateral relations, Cairo said.

The two countries promoted their relations to a “strategic partnership” in April following a meeting between President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. It was announced at the time that Egypt would receive a $734 million loan, the third tranche of a larger funding programme to develop the fourth line of the Cairo Metro.

Mr Hayashi’s visit to Cairo follows a trip to Amman on Monday where he met Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi to discuss wider financial and economic co-operation.

Though Egypt and Japan have always had a cordial relationship, ties warmed significantly under the late Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who visited Cairo in 2015 and pledged to increase bilateral relations.

Mr El Sisi returned the visit the following year and returned after securing more loans from Tokyo. An agreement to build a large solar power plant in Egypt using Japanese funding and technical know-how was also signed at the meeting.

Tokyo has also signed an agreement with Cairo to contribute to the construction of the Grand Egyptian Museum, a tourist attraction near the Giza plateau which has not yet been fully opened.

Japan provided funds and technical co-operation on conservation and restoration of cultural properties and exhibition management to the project, its Foreign Ministry said.

Following his meeting with Mr Hayashi, Mr Shoukry also received Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UNRWA, the UN's organisation for helping Palestinian refugees, at the Foreign Ministry in Cairo.