Mursi launches Egypt’s comeback to Africa

Cairo: A visit by President Mohammad Mursi to Ethiopia, the first by an Egyptian head of state in 17 years, signals a reversal in Egypt’s policy on Africa, according to experts.

Egypt largely turned its back on Africa after the now-deposed president Hosni Mubarak survived an assassination bid in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa in 1995.

“Mursi’s visit to Ethiopia is well-timed and a good sign of his administration’s interest in reinvigorating relations with Ethiopia in particular and Africa in general,” said Amani Al Tawil, the head of the African unit at the state-run Al Ahram Centre for Strategic Studies.

“The visit reverses the cold-shouldering given by Mubarak to Africa, negligence that reflected badly on Egypt’s interests in the continent,” she added.

Mursi, who is Egypt’s first elected civilian president, is attending a two-day summit conference in Ethiopia to promote inter-African trade. During the visit, Mursi is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with several African leaders. The visit comes few days after he made his first foreign trip since sworn in late last month to Saudi Arabia.

“Mursi’s trip to Ethiopia will most likely open wide doors of cooperation with Africa after long years of negligence,” said Salah Al Hadi, a political expert. “For one thing, it will raise again the profile of Egypt in Africa where Cairo was highly appreciated due to its support for national liberation movements and the newly independent countries there in the 1960s,” he added.

Al Hadi believes that Mursi’s visit will also help Egypt defuse tensions with the Nile basin countries, which erupted in the final years of Mubarak’s rule. In 2010, six Nile source countries, including Ethiopia, signed a framework agreement on water-sharing. Egypt, which mainly relies on the Nile to meet local water needs, opposed the deal and insisted on what it called its ‘historical’ right to the Nile waters stipulated in colonialism-era agreements signed in 1929 and 1959.

The pacts secure Egypt around 55.5 billion cubic metres of water annually and give it the right to veto irrigation projects along the river. Negotiations to reach a compromise between the Nile source countries and Egypt reached a deadlock under Mubarak, with Cairo threatening at the time to take whatever necessary steps to ensure that its “historical right” to the Nile waters will not be jeopardised.

In the months that followed Mubarak’s toppling in a popular revolt, several public Egyptian figures led delegations on fence-mending visits to some of the Nile countries.

Reaching out to Africa, Mursi on Sunday pledged to use Egypt’s human and economic resources to promote the continent’s development. “The January 25 revolution heralded the birth of a new stage in Egypt’s history, which will witness the return of Africa to occupy a leading place among priorities of Egypt’s foreign policy,” said Mursi in an address to the African Union summit in Addis Ababa.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammad Amr said that Mursi’s participation sends a “clear message that Egypt is keen to resume its role in Africa”.