Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will visit China and Vietnam in early September, the Egyptian president's office announced in a statement on Monday. According to the statement, El-Sisi will travel to China at the invitation of President Xi Jinping to attend the BRICS summit, which will be held in Beijing from 3 to 5 September. El-Sisi attended a meeting in Cairo on Monday with Prime Minister Sherif Ismail to prepare for the China visit. The ministers of electricity, transportation, military production, trade and industry, investment and international cooperation also attended the meeting. Also present were the head of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate and the chairman of Suez Canal Authority. The BRICS group includes the large fast-growing nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and recent member South Africa. It is viewed as a rival to the G20 group of nations in which the United States and Europe play key roles. After the BRICS summit, El-Sisi will head to Vietnam, where he will meet with his counterpart President Trần Đại Quang and the secretary general of the Communist party of Vietnam Nguyễn Phú Trọng. It will be the first visit of an Egyptian President to Vietnam since its independence in 1945. El-Sisi will be aiming to develop and upgrade Egyptian-Vietnamese relations, according to Monday's statement.
