CAIRO: French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday held a surprise second meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi after talks with the country’s top clerics, ending a three-day visit aimed at boosting ties while raising human rights concerns.
Before traveling on to Cyprus for a summit of southern EU countries, Macron and El-Sisi held an unscheduled 45-minute meeting at Cairo airport.
Earlier, Macron met with Pope Tawadros II at St. Mark’s Cathedral, the seat of Egypt’s ancient Coptic Orthodox Church. They both stressed the need for “dialogue between religions.”
“I decided that a new conference will be held in Paris to see how to act more effectively,” he said, without giving details.
A diplomatic source said the French capital would host a forum on religious minorities in the Middle East, but without giving a date.
Macron visited the church adjacent to the cathedral that was the site of a December 2016 jihadist attack, which killed 29 people.
He also met in Cairo with Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Al-Azhar, the most prestigious seat of Sunni Islamic learning in Egypt.
Their talks centered on “the training of imams (prayer leaders) in France and the fight against the misguided vision of religion,” the French presidency said.
Also on Tuesday, Macron lunched with civil society members “active in the areas of judicial protection of detainees, press freedom, gender equality and children’s defense,” the presidency said.
During the visit, Macron and El-Sisi oversaw the signing of some 30 deals in various sectors. No arms deals were signed.
