On the first leg of his Asian tour this week, President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi stopped in the Kazakh capital Astana where he discussed bilateral cooperation in trade, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, space and atomic power, infrastructure, construction and transport with Kazakh President Noursoultan Nazarbayev. More than 100 business people from the two countries also met in a joint business council to discuss Egyptian-Kazakh cooperation. Among the highlights of the visit was Nazarbayev's support for Egypt's efforts to enter into a free-trade zone with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the local Astana Times reported. “Kazakhstan and Egypt are important players for the Chinese project of the Silk Road Economic Belt. The potentials of our countries create new opportunities for effective work in this direction,” Nazarbayev said. The two heads of state signed an agreement on Egypt's participation in the international exhibition Expo 2017, which will be hosted by Astana in 2017. Egypt also signed an agreement on the setting up of the Islamic Organisation for Food Security, created under the auspices of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Pharmaceuticals is one of the areas where cooperation is strongest between the two countries. According to the Astana Times, 40 drugs and 30 products from Egypt are registered for sale in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan has also proposed opening a joint venture for the production of medicine in Kazakhstan. The Kazakh president stressed the importance of establishing long-term relations with Egypt in the agricultural sector. Kazakhstan is one of the world's leading grain exporters, while Egypt is the world's largest importer of the crop. In the period from 2006 to 2010, Kazakhstan delivered more than one million tons of grain to Egypt, the Astana Times noted. Ahead of Al-Sisi's visit, Kazakhstan announced that it is resuming direct passenger flights to Egypt in March. It had suspended flights following the crash of the Russian passenger plane in Sinai in October 2015.
