On Sunday, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman flew out to Egypt to meet with President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, as both leaders discussed various topics including closer cooperation, regional conflicts, and bilateral deals.
The crown prince's foreign visit comes just weeks before presidential elections take place in Egypt.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia have strengthened ties ever since Sisi took power after ousting the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 ... and it seems as though the relationship between the two countries is only further developing.
1. The two leaders finalized four different agreements
The two Arab leaders signed four different agreements on Sunday including an amended agreement for the establishment of a Saudi-Egyptian Investment Fund. To activate the fund, MBS and Sisi signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
An agreement for an executive program for joint cooperation to "encourage investments" between the General Authority for Investment and Duty-Free Zones in Egypt and the Public Investment Fund in Saudi Arabia was also signed.
Finally, an agreement ensuring cooperation between the two countries in environmental protection and curbing pollution was also signed. Saudi investments in Egypt are the highest compared to investments made in any other Arab country.
Investments from the kingdom in Egypt are worth up to $27 billion, spread across 2,900 projects in different sectors, said Ahmed Al-Wakil, president of the General Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce, according to Arab news.
2. One agreement saw a $10 billion joint fund towards Saudi Arabia's $500 billion mega-city project
During the visit, Saudi Arabia and Egypt set up a $10 billion joint fund which materialized Egypt's commitment to Saudi Arabia's planned $500 billion megacity project NEOM.
A Saudi official told Reuters that Egypt has committed more than 1,000 square kilometers of land in the southern Sinai Peninsula towards the project.
In return, Riyadh's portion of cash in the joint fund will be used to further develop the Egyptian side of NEOM, a project announced in an effort to diversify Saudi Arabia's economy and reducing its dependence on oil revenues.
"The investment deal underlines the strategic ties between the richest Arab state and the most populous," as Reuters described it.
3. MBS' visit to Egypt marked his first official foreign trip since assuming his role as Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince in June 2017
This wouldn't be the first time the two leaders meet.
In 2016, the two leaders met during the G20 Summit in China and had discussed the need to increase cooperation between Egypt and Saudi Arabia across various industries.
However, this trip is MBS' first official foreign trip since assuming his position as Saudi Arabia's crown prince. Following his trip to Egypt, Mohammed bin Salman will visit the United Kingdom on March 7 to meet with British Prime Minister Theresa May.
That would be followed by a visit to the United States on March 19 to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump.
4. Sisi welcomed the visit by describing MBS as a "dear guest in his second home, Egypt, for three days"
5. Prior to MBS' visit, Egypt's top court dismissed all "previous court rulings" with regards to two Red Sea islands
On Saturday, Egypt’s top court dismissed all previous court rulings regarding the transfer of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, whether for or against the controversial treaty.
In 2016, the Egyptian government signed a deal to transfer two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, sparking protests in Egypt.
One day before MBS' visit, Egypt's top court said only the "legislative authority can approve the agreement," according to The Washington Post.
The ruling "effectively ends legal challenges to the deal".
Control of Tiran and Sanafir has shifted several times over the past century. In June 2017, the Egyptian parliament agreed to the transfer of the two islands to Saudi Arabia.
A previous ruling by Egypt's highest administrative court had annulled the agreement and ruled that Egypt's sovereignty over the islands could not be given up. An Egyptian state advisory council went on to uphold the ruling, reiterating that the Red Sea islands are Egyptian.
The ownership of the islands has been subject to dispute for years. Some experts say that Egypt legally established its territorial claim to the islands in an agreement with the Ottoman Empire in 1906.
Meanwhile, others claim that Egypt merely took control of the islands in 1949, at the beckoning of Saudi Arabia.
