Egypt Longs for a Fruitful Strategic Alliance with Russia

No visiting head of state has received such a warm and enthusiastic reception from the Egyptian people and government in the past 50 years as the one that greeted President Vladimir Putin on February 9, 2015. It was a combination of ideas, motives and feelings.

Some thoughts on Vladimir Putin’s visit to Egypt

The overwhelming majority of Egyptians (from top strategists to ordinary citizens) believe deeply that the current Russian-Egyptian alliance is essential to stopping the US plan for the so-called New Middle East, i.e. a region of no less than four dozen small and fragmented states that would be easier for the United States to dominate and keep under its hegemony, especially if the US can get all or most of them engaged in domestic fighting (like the Sunni/Shiite conflict).

In this New Middle East, rulers will never be in a position to pursue independent policies, as Saudi Arabia and the UAE did in July 2013 when they embraced the post-Muslim Brotherhood era, against the will of the US. That is why the Egyptian government and people long for new and fruitful strategic alliances with Russia and China – alliances that extend to numerous political domains and economic spheres.

Egyptians realize that one of the goals of the US is to weaken Russia economically, particularly by urging Europe to rely on natural gas from Qatar instead of Russia (Qatar has some 20% of the globe's remaining gas reserves).

There is enormous potential for mutually beneficial industrial, commercial and business ventures between Russia, Egypt and other Arab countries, including the construction of a number of nuclear power plants in Egypt. As I discussed at the Valdai conference in Sochi four months ago, humanity will only benefit from a multipolar international order that avoids the numerous disastrous consequences of the current order, which is driven by a foreign policy that could easily lead humanity to its destruction.

Views expressed are of individual Members and Contributors, rather than the Club's, unless explicitly stated otherwise.