Xi Pushes New Mideast Security Architecture in Cairo

On his first Egypt visit in a decade, Xi Jinping urged Middle East nations to build a new security architecture as Beijing courts a key US ally.

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Cairo on Tuesday evening for his first state visit to Egypt in a decade, greeted on the tarmac by President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and military guards at an airport adorned with Chinese and Egyptian flags. The two leaders marked 70 years of diplomatic ties by publishing friendly opinion pieces in Egypt's state-run newspapers, with Xi writing that Beijing and Cairo should "expand the scope of pragmatic collaboration" through development. It is Xi's first trip to the Middle East region since visiting Saudi Arabia in 2022.

The visit is notable because China is cultivating an extensive relationship with one of America's key Middle East allies while the United States is militarily entangled in its six-month war with Iran. Xi aims to present China as a regional stabilizer, and the trip came right after a two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organization conference in Bishkek attended by the leaders of Russia, India, Pakistan and Iran. "China continues to build up its soft power reserves while the United States self-sabotages its own stock," Carnegie Middle East Program director Amr Hamzawy wrote earlier this year, as the Los Angeles Times notes in its coverage.

Xi urged Middle Eastern nations to be "masters of their own destiny," oppose external interference, and explore a new regional security architecture, according to China's state news agency Xinhua. China Daily reports that during talks with el-Sissi he put forward a four-point proposal built on common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, calling for integrated approaches, development as the foundation of peace, and international coordination under the UN Charter. He also stressed that the Palestinian question remains at the core of the Middle East issue and should never be marginalized.

China has invested more than $10 billion in Egypt, building a business hub east of Cairo and an electric rail line in the Nile Delta, with annual bilateral trade estimated at about $20 billion. Following the talks, the two presidents witnessed the signing of more than 20 cooperation documents covering Belt and Road cooperation, artificial intelligence, trade, the digital economy, and industrial and supply chains, according to China Daily. CNA reports that a joint statement also committed the two sides to expand cooperation in data centres, semiconductors and critical metals supply chains, and to strengthen use of each other's currencies in trade and investment.

Egypt's geography is central to the relationship. With oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz heavily disrupted by the Iran war, the Suez Canal has become an important alternative path for moving energy out of the region, and analysts say Xi sees Cairo as a base to reach the wider Arab and African world. For Egypt, closer ties with Beijing fit a diversification strategy under a policy of "strategic balance" — notable because Egypt remains a major US defence partner that, according to CNA, receives around US$1.3 billion annually in American military aid. Growing military ties were on display in August, when Chinese-made J-16 jets flew in Egypt's first-ever combat exercise alongside French-made Rafale fighters.

The two sides agreed to deepen security cooperation and counterterrorism coordination, and Xi said China was ready to work with regional countries to safeguard shipping routes — an offer with obvious weight after conflict disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb. Egyptian authorities also announced plans to expand a Chinese-developed industrial area in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, which CNA reports has attracted about US$4 billion in Chinese investment, while ZC Rubber Group signed a preliminary agreement to study a US$500 million tyre-making complex. The visit sets up follow-through on the joint statement as Beijing works to convert its security and economic pitch into durable influence.