Egypt-Qatar Summit: Newly Reconciled Countries Committed to Furthering Cooperation

In a summit with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on Saturday, 26 June, Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani told his Egyptian counterpart that Qatar is dedicated to furthering cooperation between the two newly reconciled countries.

The Qatari leader arrived in Egypt for the first time since 2015 on Friday, 24 June to hold the summit, discussing diplomatic relations with President Al-Sisi after the recent end of a three-year long estrangement.

Discussions in the summit addressed the improvement of relations, as well as potential economic benefit through initiatives such as Qatari energy investments in Egypt. Bilateral relations between the two countries will also address political, regional and international issues.

Until 2021, Egypt was one of four Arab countries that boycotted Qatar, citing “charges [that] it supports terrorism, a reference to Islamist groups”. Qatar has denied these allegations, but this did not help to change its position at the time.

Egypt and Qatar’s relationship has gradually improved throughout the years, reaching effective progress when Egypt, along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, signed the Al-Ula agreement in 2021 to rekindle diplomatic relations with Qatar.

Since then talks between both countries persisted, the most recent of which entailed a USD 5 billion investment by Qatar in Egypt valued at USD 5 billion, to strengthen ties, as well as help Egypt weather the economic difficulties that ensued from the war in Ukraine.