Belarus and Egypt set to develop security relations

The Belarusian authorities regard Egypt as a promising security partner in North Africa. Minsk is likely to make serious efforts to advance relations with Cairo.

Last week, the first international exhibition of the defence industry and armaments EDEX-2018 was held in Cairo, where Belarus promoted a broad range of domestic military industrial products. The Belarusian delegation at the exhibition was headed by the Chairman of the Goskomvoyenprom, Roman Golovchenko. Earlier, in October 2018, the Belarusian military leadership announced the intention to hold the first tripartite Belarusian-Russian-Egyptian military exercises in the autumn of 2019.

In January 2017, Alexander Lukashenka visited Egypt. A significant part of the meetings in Cairo was devoted to the military-industrial cooperation. In March 2017, the State Minister of the Egyptian Military Industry, Mohamed Said Al-Assar, visited Belarus and held meetings with the Goskomvoenprom leadership, the Belarusian Security Council and visited several Belarusian military industrial enterprises. Mohamed Al-Assar also met with Lukashenka, who declared Belarus’s readiness to train personnel to facilitate technology transfer to Egypt in spheres of its interest.

Egypt also attaches great importance to cooperation with Belarus: before travelling to Minsk, Minister Al-Assar reported on the prospects of Belarusian-Egyptian cooperation directly to President Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi.

Egypt is among the largest military powers in the Middle East, which heavily invests in its military development. That said, as a rule, the Egyptian leadership seeks to diversify military suppliers and develop the domestic military-industrial complex. Belarus is set to expand security cooperation with Cairo using military-technical cooperation as the main driver.