Al Sissi looks for new global allies

Egyptian Field Marshal Abdul Fattah Al Sissi’s trip to Moscow is an illustration of Egypt’s need to rebalance its international relationships. After Camp David, presidents Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak had turned Egypt into an American client state, which suited Washington and the Israelis very well, but removed Egypt from its normal place at the heart of Arab politics. Then, during the Arab Spring in 2011, the Obama administration sent a variety of confusing signals as it struggled to follow events on the streets and in 2013, it compounded its weakness with its lingering loyalty to the regime of Mohammad Mursi, well after the government had changed. This American confusion and lack of a long-term vision has given the Egyptian leadership the opportunity to look for new friends. It is all very well for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry to insist that the Moscow visit is not intended to be “against anyone, but is to diversify partners”, but after years of following Washington’s and the Pentagon’s whims, any shift is bound to signal that the Egyptian leadership wants to show that it has several options, which has been supported by the Egyptian media fuelling public anger against the Americans by describing them as supporters of Mursi and the Muslim Brotherhood.

But while Al Sissi is doing well to develop a wider set of global allies, it is unfortunate that he is using his precious Gulf money to buy arms, rather than nurture the struggling Egyptian economy. Egypt will benefit a lot more from $2 billion (Dh7.35 billion) of business incentives, rather than $2 billion of Russian arms — including air defence missile systems and Mig-29 fighter jets, combat helicopters and other weapons.

The visit also has to be seen from the local Egyptian perspective of the imminent presidential elections in which Al Sissi is almost certain to be the favourite in the run for presidency. It will also do the Egyptian strongman no harm in the eyes of the Egyptian public to be seen with the photogenic Russian President Vladimir Putin and boost both his macho credentials and his image of international connections.