King announces bridge to connect Kingdom, Egypt

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman announced on Friday that the Kingdom and Egypt have agreed to build a bridge over the Red Sea connecting the two countries.

The monarch made the announcement on the second day of his five-day visit to Cairo, after meeting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and before representatives of the two countries began signing as many as 17 landmark agreements.

“I agreed with my brother His Excellency President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to build a bridge connecting the two countries. This historic step to connect the two continents, Africa and Asia, is a qualitative transformation that will increase trade between the two continents to unprecedented levels and will create hundreds of jobs,” the King said.

A beaming Sisi, who had minutes before presented the King with the ceremonial Order of the Nile medal, suggested the bridge be named after King Salman.

Egyptian president presents “Order of the Nile” medal to King Salman

A Red Sea bridge linking the two countries has been proposed several times before but has failed to become a reality. At the closest point — Nabq in Egypt and Ras Alsheikh Hamid in Saudi Arabia — the two nations are 16 km apart.

“Today, we launch a new chapter on the road of Arab joint action,” President El-Sisi said.

Earlier in the day, King Salman and El-Sisi held wide-ranging talks at Al-Ittihadiyah Palace and discussed bonds of cooperation between the two countries in various spheres and ways to further bolster them in a way serving the interests of both the countries and their peoples. They also reviewed major regional and international issues.

King Salman and El-Sisi then attended a joint press conference and a ceremony marking the signing of 17 cooperation agreements covering a wide range of fields including trade, housing, transport, education, culture, nuclear, manpower and to establish a university in Egypt’s South Sinai. The agreements are worth approximately $1.7 billion, reports said.

Addressing the press, the King expressed his happiness over the visit, saying that Egypt, is a nation of great history, culture, civilization, and knowledge. “This visit comes as part of our efforts to strengthen the strong bilateral relations and we hope that it would deepen joint cooperation and serve the issues of the Arab and Muslim Ummah,” the King said and thanked the Egyptian president and people for the warm reception accorded to him as well as to the accompanying high-ranking delegation.

On his part, El-Sisi said that King Salman’s visit heralds a “strategic partnership” between the two Arab allies. “This visit lays down a solid foundation for a strategic partnership between Egypt and Saudi Arabia and confronting unprecedented challenges facing the region,” the Egyptian leader said.

“Coordination with Saudi Arabia represents a real springboard toward solving the region’s problems,” El-Sisi said while alluding to turbulences in Syria, Libya and Yemen.

Egypt is a partner to a Saudi-led military coalition that has since March 2015 been undertaking a military operation against Houthis in Yemen. Egypt has also joined a 35-member anti-terror Islamic alliance unveiled by Saudi Arabia late last year.

The two countries signed 17 deals including agreements, memoranda of understanding and executive programs. Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, second deputy premier and minister of defense, and Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail, signed an agreement to demarcate the sea borders of both the countries.

Other agreements signed were to avoid double taxation, cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy, cooperation in the fields of sea transport and ports, establishment of King Salman University in El-Tor city in Sinai, construction of residential compounds in Sinai, setting up of electricity plant, west of Cairo, and developing Al-Qasr Al-Aini Hospital.

Memoranda of understanding were signed in the fields of electricity and energy, labor, housing and real estate development, agriculture, cooperation in commerce and industry, and protecting honesty and combating corruption. Some executive programs were also signed and they cover the areas of education, cultural cooperation, and cooperation in the radio and television fields.

Minister of Finance Ibrahim Al-Assaf represented the Kingdom in signing most of the agreements while the nuclear agreement was signed by Hashim Abdullah Yamani, president of King Abdullah City for Atomic & Renewable Energy. The agreements would be instrumental in further boosting economic and trade ties to further heights.

Saudi Arabia is expected to make another major announcement on Saturday, according to the Kingdom’s ambassador to Egypt. “The investment deals that will be signed on Saturday evening will be a surprising amount that will please everyone,” Ahmed Qattan wrote on Twitter.

Saudi Arabia is among Egypt’s top investors with an estimated $27 billion and their trade exchange reached $4.9 billion last year.

King Salman is expected on Saturday to visit Al Azhar, Egypt’s influential Sunni Muslim seat of learning. On Sunday, he will address the Egyptian parliament. Cairo University, Egypt’s leading public academic institution, has decided to confer an honorary doctorate on the King.