Russia staging comeback in Egypt - by Atul Aneja

After consolidating in battle-torn Syria, Russia has once again asserted itself in Egypt, taking advantage of the current rift between Cairo and Washington, in the hope of re-emerging as a political heavyweight in West Asia.

“We want to give a new impetus to our relations and return them to the same high level that used to exist with the Soviet Union,” said Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy. He made the weighty remark after holding talks on Thursday with his visiting Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

Mr. Fahmy’s comments suggest that the time had arrived to revive the once thriving politico-military relationship between Moscow and Cairo, which had been disrupted by Anwar Sadat, Egypt’s former President, who chose to become a U.S. ally in the heat of the Cold War.

While evoking nostalgic memories of a bygone era of special ties, Mr. Fahmy cautioned that the Egyptian foreign policy would not be a zero sum game, despite the re-discovery of an old ally. “Cairo wants to intensify relations. But they won’t be alternative to anyone,” he stressed. Mr. Fahmy seemed to address the speculation that the relationship with Washington — a top Egyptian ally for three decades — was on a downward spiral, after the military toppled the elected President Mohamed Morsy in July.

Ties between Egypt and the United States in recent months seemed to have lost some of its old lustre — a perception that deepened with Washington’s decision to withhold military supplies to Cairo, following Mr. Morsy’s ouster, and the heavy crackdown on his supporters that followed. The Egyptian Army called Washington’s decision “strange,” and did little to mask its angst. It stressed that U.S. support at this time is particularly vital as “Egypt is facing a war against terrorism”— a pointed reference to a growing insurgency in the badlands of the Sinai desert that the army has been battling at considerable cost.

In Cairo, Mr. Lavrov was accompanied by Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu — a signal that the military ties were once again likely to break the decades of estrangement of the two countries. The Russian news agency Ria Novosti is reporting that the first deputy director of the Federal Service on Military-Technical Cooperation, Andrei Boitsov, along with officials from Rosoboronexport, Moscow’s weapons exporting arm, are part of the visiting team.

Read more: Russia staging comeback in Egypt - The Hindu