Egypt army chief Sisi in Moscow to seek closer bilateral ties

Egyptian army chief and Defense Minister Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi accompanied by Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy arrived in Moscow on Wednesday to discuss bilateral cooperation, official news agency MENA reported. Field Marshal Sisi, also Deputy Prime Minister, and Fahmy would hold "2+2" talks with their Russian counterparts aiming at boosting cooperation, army spokesman Colonel Ahmed Aly said in a statement. Aly said the trip follows the "historic" visit by the Russian defense and foreign ministers to Cairo last November 14. Russia's Itar Tass said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu will meet their Egyptian counterparts on Thursday. The Russia's top diplomats' visit to Cairo for two days mid- November came amid Egypt tense relations with its longtime ally United States, which suspended its military aid to the most Arab populous country following the ouster of the first elected civilian president Mohamed Morsi by the army. Some experts said Egypt will replace United States with Russia in the arm deals, but no agreement has been signed yet, and both the Egyptian and Russian sides announced that the November's visit was only to discuss political and economic ties. Egypt was one of Moscow's closest Arab allies for two decades, starting in the 1950s under the Egypt's late nationalist leader Gamal Abdel-Nasser, but relations between the two countries frosted in the 1970's when former President Anwar Sadat shifted Egypt's foreign policy and military alignment toward the United States. Since then Egypt has been one of the largest recipients of U.S. aid. Sisi is expected to announce that he will run for president by the end of this month, said Amr Moussa on Tuesday, who is head of the 50-member panel that wrote the newly approved constitution.