Cairo, Moscow sign first nuclear plant contract

CAIRO: Egypt and Russia signed a final contract on Monday for the building of Egypt’s first nuclear power plant, during a visit to Cairo by President Vladimir Putin.

The contract to build the plant in Dabaa on the Mediterranean coast was signed during a live ceremony shown on state television and attended by the Russian leader and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

The contract was signed by the head of Russian state nuclear company Rosatom, Alexei Likhachev, and Egypt’s electricity and renewable energy minister, Mohamed Shaker.Egyptian media reports put the cost of the plant at around $30 billion.

Putin also called for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks to resume, including on Jerusalem. Speaking on state television during a visit to Egypt, Putin stressed the importance of “the immediate resumption of Palestinian-Israeli talks over all disputed issues, including the status of Jerusalem”.

Putin’s visit to Cairo reflects the deepening ties between Russia and Egypt, the second largest recipient of US military aid after Israel and a strategic US partner in the Middle East because of its control of the Suez Canal.

Putin, who is due to fly to Turkey after Cairo, briefly visited a Russian base in Syria before arriving in Egypt and ordered Russian forces to start withdrawing from Syria after a two-year military campaign.

During the visit, Egypt and Russia signed an agreement to start work on Egypt’s Dabaa nuclear power plant, state television showed. They were also to discuss the resumption of Russian flights to Egypt as soon as possible, a presidential spokesman said.