Xi tells Sisi China backs new regional security architecture
Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Cairo on Tuesday for a three-day state visit, his first to Egypt in a decade, ahead of an expected trip to Washington later this month.
Xi met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi on Wednesday. According to a statement from China’s Foreign Ministry, Xi told Sisi that China supports Middle East countries exploring a new security architecture and that China opposes interference by “external forces” in the region. An Egyptian government statement said Sisi praised China’s support for the Palestinian people.
The Cairo trip followed a speech Xi delivered Tuesday at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where he warned against “hegemonism, unilateralism and protectionism.” The SCO is a security bloc that includes Russia, Iran and Pakistan.
“Hegemonism, unilateralism and protectionism are resurging against historical trends,” Xi told the summit, according to the statement. “Nevertheless, the overwhelming majority of the world do not condone power politics, conflict and confrontation, or isolation and backwardness.”
The timing of Xi’s diplomatic activity is notable, said Julian Gewirtz, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs who worked on China affairs in the Biden administration.
“The timing is exceptionally pointed,” Gewirtz said. Xi “is not doing this diplomatic engagement around the world in spite of his upcoming travel to Washington. He is doing it partly because of his upcoming travel to Washington.”
President Trump previously said he had invited Xi to visit the United States on Sept. 24, though China has not publicly confirmed the date. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told the U.S. ambassador in Beijing last week that the two countries needed to “remove disruptions and overcome obstacles” for high-level meetings, according to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement.
Xi is making his first visit to the Middle East in about four years, and the trip comes against the backdrop of U.S. military engagement with Iran and continued instability on Israel’s borders.
In Cairo, Xi received a formal welcome on Tuesday evening, with Sisi, his wife and an honor guard waiting on the airport’s red-carpeted pavement. Days before Xi arrived, Chinese and Egyptian pilots held joint military drills in which a Chinese J-16 jet fighter participated in combat exercises with French-built Rafale fighters for the first time, according to Beijing. The drills reflected deepening defense cooperation between China and Egypt, a major importer of weapons from the United States and Europe.
China has little ability or desire to replace the United States’ comprehensive role in the Middle East, and for decades China, as a leading Middle East oil importer, has benefited from American efforts to keep the region’s sea lanes operating. But with the war in Iran ongoing and shipping through the Strait of Hormuz disrupted, Xi said China was ready to help “safeguard the security of international shipping lanes,” according to China’s Foreign Ministry, which did not provide details.
The people of the Middle East should be the “masters of their own affairs,” Xi told Sisi, according to the statement.
Part of China’s economic position stems from having weathered turmoil in global energy markets with relatively little damage to its economy, by tapping the large oil reserves it built up before the war and managing demand by increasingly embracing electric vehicles. Faced with the threat of U.S. tariffs, Chinese exporters have turned to developing markets, including expanding global sales of automobiles. China also has a major interest in ensuring the smooth passage of goods through the Suez Canal.