Ch. Lehmann (nsnbc),- Egypt´s President Mohammed Morsi is expected to visit Russia on 19 April 2013 for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. On the agenda are primarily talks about trade, economy, and cooperation on various areas, including tax evasion and the trade balance between the two countries. Also on the agenda are talks about the current instability in the Middle East.
Egypt has been a long-standing partner of the Soviet Union and later Russia. Relations between the countries have long been determined by specifity and the diversity of areas of cooperation, rather than by strategic alliances, but relations were more closely knit during the 1950s and 1960s after which Egypt became more closely allied to the USA. Relations began to flourish again in the mid-nineties, when relations between Egypt and Russia, after negotiations between Hosni Mubarak and Dmitri Medvedev in 2009, were reaching the level of a strategic partnership.
Subsequent to the wave of instability, that swept over northern Africa and the Middle East since 2001, relations have become more unstable, leading to several areas of cooperation falling behind or being neglected.
A report, released by the Egyptian Commercial Representation Office in Moscow outlines several current obstacles to trade and investments between the two countries. The report describes the Egyptian-Russian Business Council as dysfunctional and that Egyptian companies are failing to participate in Russian exhibitions. The report also calls tariffs, imposed on Egyptian agricultural produce as being exorbitant. The report further mentions failure to establish a Russian industrial zone in Egypt, for which an area of land was appropriated in Borg al-Arab in 2007.
The report, which is likely to be an outline of some of the agenda that will be discussed by Morsi and Putin, also mentions a debt swap agreement from 1994, an agreement for preventing dual taxation from 1997, and an economic, scientific and technical cooperation agreement from 1992. Also on the agenda is the trade balance between the two countries which has been upset since Russia imposed a ban on the import of Egyptian potatoes in 2012.
Although not mentioned on any official document, it is likely that the two presidents also will be discussing the current political instability in Egypt and Egypt´s role with regard to Palestine and the establishment of a Free Trade Zone in the Sinai, as well as Egypt´s role with regard to the crisis in Syria.
