Beautiful Egypt 122 – «Egypt-Russia Relations» – August 30, 2015

   In the previous article, we tackled the strong relations between Egypt and Russia. These relations started in the eighteenth century when the first Russian consul was appointed in Alexandria. Then came the Suez Canal which connected the history of the two countries: starting with the Convention of Constantinople in 1888 until the Suez Canal Crisis in 1956 when Russia supported Egypt against the Tripartite Aggression. After that, Russia helped Egypt build the High Dam. Thus, a monument was established near Aswan to express the friendship between the two countries.

Egypt-Russia Relations in the 1950s and the 1960s

   These two decades witnessed a great cooperation between Egypt and Russia in several fields: whereby the Soviet Union helped Egypt modernize her Armed Forces by supplying them with Soviet Military experts, receiving military Egyptian expeditions in the Soviet Union, as well as building the High Dam and implementing about 97 projects, such as, extending electricity lines to Aswan, constructing the Iron & Steel Egyptian Company in Helwan and Egyptalum in Naj’ Hammady. After the 1967 setback, Russia started supplying Egypt with weapons, as well as dispatching a large number of military experts to train the Egyptian Army on new weapons. Likewise, Abdul Nasser resorted to the Soviets to build an SA-1 and SA-2 Missile batteries in 1968 and 1969 after Israel had destroyed Egyptian sites during the War of Attrition.

Egypt-Russia Relations in the 1970s

   Anwar Sadat succeeded Nasser as president at the beginning of the 1970s. The relations between Egypt and Russia remained normal. Even more, they became stronger than before after a Russian delegation had come to offer condolences on Nasser’s death and convene with the Egyptian leadership. A communiqué was issued pledging the continuity of cooperation between Egypt and Russia. During Podgorny’s visit to Egypt in 1971, a five-year cooperation convention was signed by both parties.
   Nevertheless, troubles started to cloud the Egypt-Russia relations concerning Egypt’s acquiring weapons from the Soviet Union. So much so that Sadat decided returning 15 thousand Russian experts to their country, for he believed that Russian experts’ role in the army would hinder the war. Additionally, the Soviet Union had already agreed to equip Egypt with weapon provided that she would not use them except with its consent! By 1976, Egypt-Russia relations were completely severed until 1981.

Egypt-Russia Relations in the 1980s

   Egypt-Russia relations started to return gradually in the 1980s during Mubarak’s tenure. Yet, at the beginning of 1990, the Soviet government began to face economic problems which increased immensely due to the outbreak of rebellions that aimed at winning independence from the Soviet Union. Problems increased to such an extent that the government lost control on the economic conditions. To make matters worse, internal conflicts started which led to the conversion of the Soviet Union to a Commonwealth Federation by the end of 1991, after which it became the Russian Federation by led Boris Yeltsin. But Egypt was one of the first countries to make diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Exchange of Visits

   Egypt and Russia have started exchanging visits since the nineteenth century. Its concluding years witnessed visits from representatives of Tsar Alexander II and Khedive Mohammed Ali, then the visit of Tsar Alexander III brothers to Egypt in 1888 with his sons Nicholas II and George in 1890.
Then before taking over, Khedive Abbas, visited St. Petersburg. In 1900, he visited Odessa on his way to Romania. Likewise, Prince Mohammed Ali visited Caucasus and Siberia on his way to Japan.

   Nasser first visited the Soviet Union on April, 1958. He was received by Nikita Khrushchev. This visit aimed at boosting the cooperation of the Soviet Union in building the High Dam after the United States of America had retracted from funding the project. The Soviet Union supported the project by dispatching 400 experts to help with the building process, in addition to the financial aid given to Egypt. Then, Nasser paid a second visit to the Soviet Union in 1968 in return to Khrushchev’s visit on May, 1964 whereby he was received by Nasser.

   In the 1970s, Sadat visited the Soviet Union on April 1971. He was received by Premier Alexei Kosygin.

   Sadat held discussions with Leonid Brezhnev Former General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The first official visit was paid by Hosni Mubarak on May, 1990. The second was on September, 1997 in which he signed the Joint Egypt-Russian Statement as well as seven cooperation agreements. These were followed by a number of visits in 2001, 2006, and 2008.

   As for the Russian party, Yevgeny Primakov, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia visited Egypt in 1997. He was received by ex-President Hosni Mubarak. On April, 2005, President Vladimir Putin visited Egypt to hold bilaterals, which resulted in a joint statement about deepening friendship and partnership between the two countries. On June, 2009, Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister of Russia visited Egypt, and the two presidents signed a number of strategic partnership documents.

   On November, 2013, Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Shoygu, Minister of Defense, and Mikhail Bogdanov, deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and envoy to the Middle East, Russian Ambassador to Egypt Serge Kirpichenko, and Sergey Vershinin, the Russian foreign minister’s special envoy arrived in Egypt and were received by interim president Adly Mansur. The meeting was attended by General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who was then first deputy prime minister, general commander of the Armed Forces, and minister of defense, Dr. Nabil Fahmy, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Dr. Mustafa Hejazy, president’s strategic consultant.

   Russia also played a crucial role after the June 30 Revolution: whereby interim president Adly Mansur received a phone call from president Putin in which the latter expressed his support for Egypt and her transition administration which represented the people, and … Stories never end in Beautiful Egypt.

General Bishop
Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center