Sisi, French Intelligence Chief discuss bilateral security, military co-op

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi received Wednesday France’s Director of the Directorate-General for External Security Bernard Émié in the presence of Major-General Abbas Kamel, Head of General Intelligence.

Sisi welcomed the French official and asked him to convey his greetings to President Emmanuel Macron, stressing the importance Egypt attaches to strengthening and boosting strategic cooperation with France in various fields.

On his part, Émié conveyed to Sisi the greetings of French President Macron, expressing his country's pride in the constructive cooperation and close relations linking it to Egypt.

He stressed France's keenness to maintain continuous coordination with Egypt on all issues of common interest in the region, especially with regard to developments in the situation in the Middle East regions, the eastern Mediterranean and the African continent.

Thus, he commenced Egypt's role as a stabilizing pillar for the entire regional security, and the effective efforts of the Egyptian president to support regional security and stability.

“The meeting witnessed discussions on a number of bilateral cooperation issues at the security and military level, as well as exchanging views and reviewing various regional and international issues in the framework of security and intelligence cooperation between the two countries,” said Presidency Spokesperson Bassam Rady.

Sisi and Émié tackled combating the spread of the threat of terrorism and extremist organizations at the regional and international levels.

The Egyptian president affirmed the importance of the factor of regular coordination in this regard to develop efforts to combat extremist ideological thought, violence and terrorism, and to increase pressure on terrorist organizations and groups.

Moreover, The French Director of the Directorate-General for External Security was also briefed on the president's vision of developments related to a number of regional issues in the eastern Mediterranean, as well as the situation in Libya.

In this regard, the French official praised the great positive impact of the “red lines” announced by Sisi regarding the field situation in eastern Libya, which supported the course of negotiations, and political efforts to seek a comprehensive solution to the issue.