Xi returns to transformed Middle East for first Egypt visit in 10 years

Chinese President Xi Jinping (center) walks with his his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sissi (right) upon Xi's arrival at the Cairo International Airport on Tuesday. | REUTERS

BLOOMBERG

Sep 2, 2026

When Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Cairo this week, he’ll find plenty has changed in Egypt and the region around it since his last trip to the Middle East’s most populous nation a decade ago.

Back in 2016, Xi’s five-day swing through Riyadh, Cairo and Tehran made him the first major world leader to visit since the U.S. and European Union lifted sanctions against Iran just days earlier. Now, he’s coming back to a region convulsed by war and with U.S. economic weapons once again deployed against Tehran.

In Egypt, where he touches down Wednesday at the invitation of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, a new administrative capital has sprouted up east of Cairo, and fresh highways, railways and monorails thunder across the vast metropolis. The Mediterranean and Red Sea coasts sport ever-glitzier new resorts, while an expanded Suez Canal investment zone aspires to be a global trade hub.

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