Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met with Vo Van Thuong, the head of the communication and information committee in Vietnam's ruling Communist Party, in Cairo on Saturday to discuss bilateral relations. In an official statement, El-Sisi's spokesman Bassam Rady said acting intelligence chief Abbas Kamel attended the meeting with the Politburo member and his accompanying delegation. The president and Thuong both praised “positive developments” in the cooperation between Egypt and Vietnam, according to the statement. El-Sisi stressed the “historic and special relations” between the two countries, hailing the ongoing cooperation in light of his visit to Hanoi in September 2017. Last year, El-Sisi became the first ever Egyptian president to visit Hanoi, where he and his counterpart Tran Dai Quang signed nine memorandums of understanding in a number of economic fields. The president pointed to the progress in relations between the two countries, including the convening of the first meeting of the trade and cooperation committee which was formed out of the joint ministerial committee meeting in Cairo last month. The volume of trade exchange between Egypt and Vietnam in 2017 rose to $377 million from $266 million in 2016, which represents an increase of 41.7 percent, according to Egypt's Ministry of Trade and Industry. Imports to Egypt from Vietnam includes tyres, electrical appliances, synthetic fabrics, and other goods, while Egyptian exports to Vietnam included tanned leather, spare parts and shellfish. El-Sisi also discussed the country's efforts towards economic reform, as well as national projects being executed, expressing his hope for a boost in joint investments and the revitalisation of Vietnamese tourism to Egypt. According to Rady, Thuong expressed his country's appreciation for its continued historic ties with Egypt, highlighting the attention that the Vietnamese government and the ruling party is giving to strengthening relations with Egypt in all fields. Thuong stressed his country's keenness to follow up on the outcomes of El-Sisi's visit to Hanoi to push forward with bilateral cooperation. He also expressed Vietnam's appreciation for Egypt's leading role regionally and internationally, as well as its role in combating terrorism, and establishing security, stability, and peace in the Middle East. Saturday's meeting comes two days after the Vietnamese official met in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, where they discussed means of bolstering relations between the two countries.
