Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egyptian President Abdul Fattah El Sisi met this week in Cairo, leaving for a regional tour a month ahead of US President Joe Biden's trip to Saudi Arabia. In addition to Egypt, Prince Mohammed will also visit Jordan and Turkey during his tour. Prince Mohammed then visited King Abdullah II in Amman.
Biden is set to visit Saudi Arabia from July 15-16, his first visit since taking office last January.
At Cairo's airport, President Sisi welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
They discussed boosting Egyptian-Saudi cooperation during their meeting Tuesday at the presidential palace in Cairo. In addition to the Ukraine war, media reports indicated Arab states coordinated their stances ahead of Biden's visit.
A flight to Turkey will then be taken by the Saudi crown prince.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Saudi Arabia in April for the first time since Jamal Khashoggi was killed in 2018 at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, aiming to patch up relations that had been strained.
Saudi Arabia is hosting a regional summit on July 16 for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq that will be attended by both El Sisi and Jordan's monarch. Biden is also scheduled to attend. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates make up the GCC.
El Sisi met this week in Sharm al-Sheikh with Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa and King Abdullah II of Jordan.
Egypt is supported financially and diplomatically by Saudi Arabia. Since El Sisi's election in mid-2014, the relationship between the two Arab giants has flourished.
A government investment agency in Egypt said Tuesday the two nations signed 14 agreements with a total value of $7.7 billion, including ones in the energy, logistics, and infrastructure industries.
According to official figures, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have exchanged $47.7 billion dollars in trade over the past six years.
The Egyptian state statistics agency reported that trade between Egypt and Saudi Arabia reached $9.1 billion last year, compared with $5.6 billion in 2020.
Egypt's largest Arab investor is Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has invested over $32 billion in Egypt through over 6,800 companies, primarily in construction, tourism, banking, finance, services, agriculture, telecommunications, and information technology, reports the Saudi news agency SPA.
Egypt also has a large community of workers in Saudi Arabia.