President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron met in Paris on Tuesday where they discussed crises in the Middle East, means of confronting terrorism, and human rights.
Macron and Sisi attended the signing of a number of agreements to strengthen cooperation between the French and Egyptian governments in the fields of traditional energy, maritime, air and metro at 400 million euros.
Sisi denied the existence of political prisoners in Egypt saying human rights organizations need to know more about the situation in Egypt.
The media deals with human rights issues in an unrealistic way, he added, stressing that Egypt is keen to establish a modern democratic civilian state.
Sisi said Egyptian people will not accept violent practices, dictatorship, or lack of respect for human rights.
“We in Egypt are keen on human rights and we live in a very troubled region,” he said.
Egyptian people are enjoying real democracy in accordance with their political will, we do not practice torture, and everyone has to beware of information that is published by human rights organizations, Sisi mentioned.
Macron said that he agreed with Sisi to face various crises at the diplomatic level, pointing out that Paris is facing terrorist operations in the framework of preserving human rights in order to achieve stability.
France supports Egypt in its fight against terrorism, Macron said, and offered his condolences to the victims of the recent attack in the western desert of Egypt against security forces.
As for human rights, Macron said he spoke to Sisi on three points. The first is the security framework, the second is the sovereignty of the state, and the third is France’s defense of human rights, which it considers to be universal rights.
He said Egypt needs to preserve human rights even with its fight against terrorism.
France will discuss a possible deal to sell more of the Rafal fighters to Egypt during Sisi’s visit, the French Finance Minister, Bruno Le Maire, told Europe 1 radio network.
Sisi met French Defence Minister Florence Parley on Monday evening, and discussed ways to consolidate defense and military cooperation between Egypt and France.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
