Russian ministers make landmark Cairo visit

Google – AFP, 14 November 2013

Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmi (R-partially hidden) meets with his Russian

 counterpart Sergey Lavrov (C) on November 14, 2013 in the Egyptian capital, Cairo 

(AFP, Khaled Desouki)

Cairo — Russia's foreign and defence ministers went into talks with their Egyptian counterparts Thursday, an Egyptian official said, on a landmark visit after a diplomatic spat between Cairo and Washington.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu arrived in Cairo for the talks which Moscow has said could include discussions on the sale of Russian weapons to Egypt.

The talks were the first at such a high level between the two countries "in the history of our friendly relations," Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said last week.

Lukashevich said the discussions would touch on "military and technical cooperation" -- a Russian euphemism for arms sales -- as well as political and economic ties.

Egypt had close ties with Russia until several years before president Anwar Sadat made peace with Israel in 1979, bringing in roughly $1.3 billion in yearly US military aid over the subsequent decades.

Diplomatic ties between Egypt and the United States soured after Washington suspended some of its military aid to Cairo after the Egyptian army ousted Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July.

Since then Egypt has taken a more "independent" tack and broadening its foreign policy, Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy told AFP in an interview on Saturday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry attempted to rekindle the relations between the two countries during a visit to Cairo this month -- his first to the country since the ouster of Morsi.

"It does not mean everything has been resolved. It does not mean there won't be hiccups in the relationship in the future," Fahmy said after Kerry's visit.

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Archangel Michael on Putin -  May 14, 2013 (An Hour with an Angel)

SB: Okay. Thank you, Lord. I’m going to put the Vladimir Putin question ahead of the Boston bombing question. I think a lot of Russian readers and listeners are wondering if they can trust Vladimir Putin.

Now, you’ve said he was in containment and he’s coming out of containment. Can you direct yourself to Russian listeners, please, and tell them what they need to know about Vladimir Putin, please?

AAM: Well, I will say that he has been gradually coming out of containment, and reintegrated, shall we say, into society and into his role and decisions. So what I say to you is be vigilant and be the observer. Do not get caught in what appears to be the drama of this readjustment of power. So, allow the shifting of the core and the centers of power to be adjusted.

Russia has a very important role to play in the future years, as I have said before. So, stand back, my friends. Be the observer. I am not asking you to extend your wholehearted trust and empathy to this individual. What I am asking you to do is to extend trust to your own discernment, because it is not 100 per cent clean, but it is not dirty either.....