Minister of Foreign Affairs Nabil Fahmy will travel to Russia in mid-September to meet with his Russian counterpart. Russia's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov will host Fahmy to "discuss bi-lateral relations in various areas and regional issues," with the Syrian crisis and the Palestiniain-Israeli peace talks topping the agenda. The announcement was made through a statement from the Egyptian ministry on Monday. Fahmy met with Russia's ambassador to Egypt last week to discuss the relations between the two countries as well as Syria and the Middle East peace process. Fahmy and Lavrov exchanged congratulatory messages at the end of August to mark the seventieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Fahmy stressed at the time the "importance of seizing this opportunity to give a new impetus aimed at promoting cooperation and strengthening friendship between the two countries and the two peoples." Russian President Vladimir Putin was scheduled to visit Egypt in August, a meeting that had been arranged before Mohamed Morsi was ousted on 3 July. There was some confusion as to whether or not the visit would occur, and as a result of the lack of coordination, it did not. Morsi travelled to Russia in April and met with Putin in Moscow. The two-day visit was set to bring about several economic benefits for Egypt, according to the presidency at the time of the visit. It emerged that Morsi had requested a $2bn loan from Russia on his visit; however no agreement was reached between the two sides.
