Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Moscow supports Egypt's "firmness" in facing terrorism, indicating that strategic relations between the two countries are developing by the day. Lavrov said in an interview with Russia Today that consultations are ongoing between military experts in both countries in light of the increasing terror threat in the region. The Russian minister also mentioned strategic cooperation projects between Egypt and Russia, such as the construction of Egypt's first-ever nuclear power plant at Dabaa on the north coast and plans to establish the Russian industrial zone in Egypt's Suez Gulf area. Earlier this month, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin attended the signing of an agreement officially launching work on the Dabaa plant. Days after the visit, the transport ministers of both countries signed in Moscow protocols for resuming commercial flights between Moscow and Cairo in the first half of February 2018. Flights between Russia and Egypt were halted in 2015 following the crash of a Russian passenger jet in Sinai that killed all 224 people on board.
