Seventy years after Cairo became the first Arab and African capital to recognize Beijing. An Egyptian think tank has published what its editors call the first comprehensive annual attempt to map exactly where that relationship stands and where it’s headed next.
Ahmed Kandil, head of the International Relations Unit at Egypt’s Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, told Xinhua that partnership has evolved “from a historic friendship and traditional cooperation into a forward-looking comprehensive strategic partnership.” Kandil serves as editor-in-chief of “The Strategic Report on Egyptian-Chinese Relations 2024-2025.” Released by the center specifically to mark this year’s 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties. According to the Al-Ahram Center. It is the first report of its kind to systematically track and interpret the relationship across its political, economic, technological, security, cultural, educational, digital and tourism dimensions in a single annual publication. An editorial choice its authors frame as an attempt to keep pace with a relationship moving faster than traditional policy analysis can easily capture.
The report’s central finding, according to Kandil, is that cooperation between the two countries has expanded well past its traditional base in trade and investment into artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, space technology, green energy and digital infrastructure. “We are witnessing a qualitative transformation in bilateral economic relations,” he said. “This is a shift from conventional trade toward value creation and the localization of strategic industries.”
He pointed to Chinese investment in the Suez Canal Economic Zone. Specifically the China-Egypt TEDA Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone in Ain Sokhna, as the clearest illustration of that shift in practice. “Chinese investment is not confined to individual projects,” Kandil said. “It has become an investment in the foundations of Egypt’s economic strength, spanning industry, energy, technology, logistics, finance and the green economy.” The TEDA zone has grown to host more than 180 companies. Including Chinese fiberglass manufacturer Jushi, whose Ain Sokhna production line has become one of the zone’s flagship operations.
Recalling that Egypt became the first Arab and African nation to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China in 1956. Kandil argued the relationship’s durability owes less to shifting economic interests than to a deeper political foundation. “The relationship was never built on narrow interests,” he said. “It has always rested on profound political and civilizational foundations. Including support for national independence, opposition to hegemony and respect for state sovereignty.” He said the two countries today share broad strategic convergence on major international questions. Reform of global governance, support for a multipolar world order, respect for diverse development paths and non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states.
On the Belt and Road Initiative specifically, Kandil argued Egypt is uniquely positioned to play an outsized role. Citing its location at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe. And its extensive network of trade agreements gives it access to Arab, African and European markets simultaneously. Those advantages, he said, put Egypt in a position not merely to participate in the BRI but to help actively shape the future direction of Egypt-China cooperation more broadly. For Global South countries generally, he added, Chinese-led initiatives like the BRI offer expanded access to financing, technology transfer, investment and infrastructure development. Along with greater strategic flexibility within a shifting international landscape.
Kandil’s comments arrive amid a wave of concrete diplomatic and economic activity marking the relationship’s 70th year. Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Cairo last year produced a memorandum of understanding on the first joint development cooperation strategy for 2025-2029. Alongside the first phase of a debt-for-development swap program. Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly used the occasion to press specifically for addressing the trade imbalance between the two countries by expanding Egyptian exports to Chinese markets. That imbalance remains substantial. Bilateral trade exceeded $17 billion in 2024. According to Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics. With Egyptian imports from China alone accounting for roughly $15.5 billion of that total.
Chinese officials have pointed to specific steps meant to help close that gap, including expanded market access measures for Egyptian exporters. While both governments have continued directing new investment toward flagship projects including the New Administrative Capital’s Central Business District. The 10th of Ramadan electric train line. The Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has separately expanded its Egypt cooperation portfolio to roughly $40 billion across 220 projects. According to figures cited by Egyptian officials, both governments have continued deepening cooperation through multilateral platforms. Including BRICS, the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum and the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation.
Kandil’s remarks echo that, this anniversary year to frame the Egypt-China relationship as a model worth studying elsewhere. Cairo-based analyst Rania Aboelkheir made a similar case in a separate interview earlier this year. Pointing to the TEDA zone and Egypt’s Iconic Tower as evidence of the relationship’s practical depth. While former Egyptian Ambassador to China Assem Hanafi has described the past decade of ties as a template for comprehensive partnership built on respect, trust and shared interests. What Kandil’s report adds to that running conversation is a more systematic sector-by-sector accounting. An attempt, as the Al-Ahram Center has put it, to build the kind of institutional memory that lets policymakers, diplomats and investors track the relationship’s trajectory year over year.
Ties were formally elevated to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2014. China has now held the position of Egypt’s largest trading partner for 12 consecutive years. Whether that partnership’s next chapter manages to convert Kandil’s “qualitative transformation” language into a meaningfully rebalanced trade relationship. Rather than simply a broader one. Is likely to be the central question the report’s authors intend to keep tracking in the editions still to come.
