Xi's Egypt visit signals China's push for greater Middle East influence

Xi Jinping met Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo to deepen trade, investment and diplomatic coordination. The visit underlines Beijing's bid to widen its Middle East footprint through a key US partner.Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Egypt this week is being presented as a push to deepen economic and diplomatic ties, but it also highlights China’s effort to expand its influence in the Middle East through one of the United States’ key regional allies.During talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo, Xi sought to present China as a force for stability in the region, drawing a contrast with the United States, which has been militarily involved in the Middle East for decades, most recently in its six-month war with Iran.Xi arrived in Cairo on Tuesday evening to a red-carpet welcome at the airport, where Chinese and Egyptian flags were displayed and military guards received him alongside el-Sissi. On Wednesday, in wide-ranging talks, Xi said Cairo and Beijing should jointly oppose what he called "unilateralism and acts of bullying", according to China’s state-run Xinhua news agency. He also said the two countries should "work together for a more just and equitable global governance system", Xinhua reported.Amr Hamzawy, director of the Washington-based Carnegie Middle East Program, wrote in a paper earlier this year with Kathryn Selfe, a former fellow at the programme: "China continues to build up its soft power reserves while the United States self-sabotages its own stock." The visit is Xi’s first trip to Egypt in a decade and his first to the region since he visited Saudi Arabia in 2022. He also visited the Grand Egyptian Museum near the pyramids of Giza. El-Sissi, for his part, has travelled to China several times in recent years. On Tuesday, the two leaders marked 70 years of diplomatic ties by publishing opinion pieces in Egypt’s state-run newspapers.In his article, Xi said Beijing and Cairo should "expand the scope of pragmatic collaboration" through development. El-Sissi praised Chinese investment in Egypt and repeated Cairo’s support for China’s position that Taiwan is part of its territory. Egypt sees its growing relationship with China as a way to diversify its strategic partnerships. In 2023, Egypt was invited to join BRICS, the grouping of major emerging economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and is seen as a counterweight to Western-led institutions such as the G7. A year later, Egypt signed agreements with China on cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, Xi’s signature infrastructure policy.China has invested more than USD 10 billion in Egypt, including a business hub east of Cairo and an electric rail line for industry in the Nile Delta. Annual trade between the two countries is estimated at USD 20 billion, according to government figures. Trade between the US and Egypt was USD 15.7 billion in 2025. Egypt remains an important partner for US security priorities in the region, and the two countries’ leaders have close ties.China has also been trying to build bridges across the Middle East. In 2023, Beijing brokered an agreement to restore diplomatic ties between Iran, its most important regional ally and oil supplier, and Saudi Arabia, a longtime US ally. The deal underlined China’s ambition to compete with the United States for influence in the region.Since then, relations between Riyadh and Tehran have worsened. Iran attacked Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries as part of its retaliation against the US and Israel, which launched the war on February 28. China has also tried to cast itself as a regional mediator by backing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, seen in the Arab world as central to regional stability. Shortly before Hamas militants attacked Israel in 2023 and triggered the war in Gaza, Xi hosted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and announced a "strategic partnership" with the Palestinian Authority.With oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz heavily disrupted by the Iran war, the Egypt-controlled Suez Canal has become an important alternative route for moving energy supplies out of the region. "China has good reason to strengthen ties with the country that controls the route still open," said Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat, a Middle East expert with Jakarta’s Centre of Economic and Law Studies.Rakhmat said Xi sees Egypt "as a base to reach the wider Arab and African world, at a time when the US has less attention to spare there". In August, China and Egypt held a multi-day air exercise at several bases across Egypt, the first combat exercise involving China’s J-16 fighter jets and Egypt’s French-made Rafale fighters.Xi arrived in Cairo after attending a two-day conference of the 10-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. The political and security grouping is billed as a counterweight to US global influence, and leaders from Russia, India, Pakistan and Iran were among those present.The visit also comes after the Trump administration’s "economic onslaught" on Iran’s financial links around the world. The sanctions are aimed at isolating Tehran from its remaining economic partners, including China, which buys more than 80% of Iranian oil shipments, usually through indirect channels. Beijing says its trade with Iran has always complied with international law.Xi’s Egypt visit, while focused on bilateral ties, also reflects China’s wider push to strengthen its role in the Middle East through trade, diplomacy and strategic links with countries such as Egypt.With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Sep 2, 2026 22:44 IST