Egypt and Emirati military officials have finalised preparations for a joint training exercise between the two countries ongoing for the last few days in Sheik Zayed city in the United Arab Emirates. The joint exercise, dubbed "Righteous Arrows", aims to "support and strengthen the areas of military cooperation and coordination". It also aims to "measure the readiness of troops to carry out all the tasks under different conditions and the transfer and exchange of experiences and unifying concepts among all participating elements", said an Egyptian armed forces statement on Sunday. This is the third joint exercise the UAE and Egypt have conducted this year. The previous two, Zeyad 1 and Khalifa 1 were carried out in the UAE and Egypt, respectively. Relations between Egypt and the UAE strengthened following the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013. The Gulf nation, along with its neighbours Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, expressed support for Egypt in the immediate aftermath of the toppling of the Islamist president. The UAE pledged a $1bn grant and $2bn interest free loan to boost Egypt's ailing economy in July 2013, just days after the change of government. Arabtec, a UAE construction company agreed in March to build 1m residential units in Egypt, due for completion in 2017.
