Egypt is going through hard post-revolutionary times. The new government is trying to restore ties with other countries. Marina Sapronova, a professor of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, has described efforts to regain the international positions and the expectations of voters for Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the new president who received 96% of the votes on May 26-28, 2014.
According to Marina Sapronova, the new Egyptian authorities were preparing for the presidential and the parliamentary polls very scrupulously. In her words, the elections this year differ from the “first transitional period” when the Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was in power. First, the president was elected, then the parliament, the half of the population did not recognize the Constitution, because it seemed obvious that the Constitution had been made for the executive and legislative structures in power. The military remembered this and took a different path. Sapronova noted: “The political process was reversed. First, a Constitution of which the majority of the population approved was adopted. Before that, between the adoption of the Constitution and the presidential polls, a totally new electoral law was adopted. It was quite harsh. It set very clear longstops and obstacles to prevent unfavourable forces from entering the political arena. In general, it is quite a positive process when, despite quite an unstable economic and political situation, the government builds a legal basis for the future political process. It is important.”
In Marina Sapronova’s view, the main criterion that Egyptians considered when electing the president was al-Sisi’s ability to enforce stability and security. “His clear steps make this very distinct: the situation on the Sinai Peninsula has stabilized, fact. Moreover, Mohamed Morsi could not do that. It was done within just a year of al-Sisi coming to power. Moreover, the government demonstrated that it will use force to crackdown on protests, restore order and prevent further destabilization of the situation. The government demonstrates its intention to restore order. The visit to Russia and the signing of the well-known Military Contract were quite an independent manoeuvre in foreign policy.”
The professor notes positive changes in the country’s economy, an important factor in the popularity of the new government: “The new authorities have demonstrated the ability to attract investments, though they are rather scare, but they are quite serious loans. Long-term contracts were signed with Kuwait, for example. It is obliged to supply Egypt with 85,000 barrels of oil a day. There are active gas negotiations. In other words, there are long-term contracts coming up. Just a few days ago, the Egyptian foreign minister visited the U.S. It was clear after the visit that the U.S. was taking a few steps backwards in their policy toward Egypt and softening its policy, transforming its attitude towards the military. Egypt has received and will soon receive 650 million dollars. There were such deals. Of course, it is not 1.5 billion [the volume of annual financial aid from the U.S. to Egypt until October 2013], but, in fact, half of the sum Egypt was receiving. 10 combat helicopters were shipped to Egypt, further contracts on shipments of tanks, additional equipment etc. were signed.” Marina Sapronova emphasizes that relations with the U.S. were just one of the indicators of Egypt’s gradual restoration of positions in the international arena: “The process of reanimating relations with the U.S. is ongoing. And, speaking at press conferences, the Egyptian foreign minister said clearly that the U.S. remained a strategic partner of Egypt and compared relations between Egypt and the U.S. with family relations, controversially to the temporal intrigue. This gives reason to say that Egypt is recovering and restoring its positions. It seems that Egypt will try to restore its positions in foreign relations as a major regional state.”
