Q: Egyptian President Al-Sisi will visit China. Is it a state visit? Will the two sides elevate bilateral relationship to a comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation after the visit?

A: I can confirm that President Al-Sisi will pay a state visit to China.

Egypt is a major country in the Middle East, whose stability bears on the overall stability and development of the region. We congratulate Egypt on making positive progress in the process of political transition. The Chinese side will always respect the right of the Egyptian people to choose their own social system and development path. We sincerely hope that Egypt can maintain stability and development and that Egypt would continue to play an important role in safeguarding regional peace and stability.

China and Egypt enjoy long-standing friendship. The Chinese people and the Egyptian people cherish friendly feelings toward each other. The two countries have maintained a sound and steady growth of bilateral relations over the past 58 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties, and carried out effective cooperation in politics, trade, culture, people-to-people exchanges and other fields. The Chinese side attaches great importance to developing relations with Egypt. President Al-Sisi is going to pay an important visit to China at a significant period of time. We wish his visit a fruitful one which will take bilateral relations to a new high.

We will release details about the visit in a timely fashion.

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