Xi Jinping Arrives in Cairo for China's First State Visit to Egypt in a Decade

Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in Cairo on the evening of September 1, 2026, with First Lady Peng Liyuan, opening a two-day state visit — his first trip to Egypt in ten years. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and First Lady Entissar Amer received the couple at Cairo International Airport. The visit, framed around the 70th anniversary of Egyptian-Chinese diplomatic relations, comes as Beijing seeks a stronger regional foothold amid the fallout from the US-Israel war with Iran and Houthi disruption of Red Sea shipping, and as Egypt leans on its control of the Suez Canal — an increasingly critical trade route with the Strait of Hormuz closed — to assert what Sisi calls an 'independent foreign policy' balancing Washington and Beijing. The trip follows the 'Eagles of Civilization 2026' China-Egypt joint air exercise earlier in August and comes as Egyptian and Chinese banks face a heightened US sanctions regime over financial links to Iran, after Washington moved to cut Banque Misr's UAE operations off from the US financial system.