President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi arrived last Sunday morning to Uganda in an official one-day visit. The visit comes after El-Sisi received an official invitation from his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni, according to a statement issued by the presidency.
During the president’s one-day visit, El-Sisi met with senior Ugandan officials and discussed ways to enhance bilateral relations across all fields, as well as a number of African issues of mutual concern, the statement asserted. At the presidential palace located in Uganda’s capital of Entebbe, El-Sisi and Museveni discussed ways to strengthen cooperation, particularly at the economic and trade levels, as well as establishing more joint projects in Uganda.
Presidents El-Sisi and Museveni held a joint press conference in which he confirmed the integrated and joint cooperation between both countries, sharing the Nile as well as, sharing the same aspirations for a prosperous future. El-Sisi said ;”We are required to work for promoting these relations in all fields especially in the development domains such as energy, management of water resources and application of modern irrigation systems along with upgrading the agriculture and livestock sector.”
“Egypt does not spare any effort for achieving these goals through extending technical support via the Egyptian Agency of Partnership for Development and the Egyptian Initiative for the Development of the Nile Basin Countries. We attach special importance to joint political and security coordination between Egypt and Uganda with a view to promoting regional stability. We hope that the political consultation mechanism between the two countries on which a memorandum of understanding was signed today would help to achieving this goal. Within the framework of our interest in increasing economic and trade exchange between the two countries and as part of Egypt’s keenness on enhancing its investments in Uganda, I would like to make reference to the activity of the Egyptian private sector in Uganda which has been growing over the past years. I also urge the Egyptian private sector to further increase its investments and capitalise on the available opportunities provided by sisterly Uganda in the various sectors.”
The presidents agreed on a plan to make the River Nile a transportation highway to the Mediterranean Sea to reduce import-export costs. President Museveni said at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two countries that the alternative route on River Nile, which has its source in Uganda, would go up to Egypt’s northern Alexandria seaport city. The port handles about 80 percent of Egypt’s imports and exports.”We are, however, looking at the security problems in South Sudan and Sudan and see how they can be solved,” Mr Museveni said, referring to a meltdown in Uganda’s northern neighbour triggered by political stalemate between President Salva Kiir and his former Vice-turned-rebel leader Riek Machar.
