MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to help Egypt develop a nuclear-power industry after signing an accord with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, to build a plant for electricity generation.
Construction of the nuclear station and training of staff could lead to the creation of a new industry for Egypt, Putin said at a joint briefing with El-Sisi in Cairo on Tuesday. Russia is ready to provide Egypt with credit to build a plant with four reactors, each capable of generating 1,200 megawatts of electricity, and a contract could be signed this year, Sergei Kiriyenko, chief executive officer of state-owned Rosatom, told reporters.
Russia is Egypt’s strategic partner, said El-Sisi, who stressed the importance of military cooperation and thanked Putin for his support in “tough times.” Their cooperation on global issues is important and they take a common stand against terrorism, El-Sisi said.
Putin presented an AK-47 assault rifle to El-Sisi during his two-day visit to Egypt, which concludes a day before planned talks between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France to try to end the conflict involving separatists and government forces in eastern Ukraine. Preparations for the meeting in Minsk, Belarus, on Wednesday are continuing, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Interfax news service.
