President Lương Cường and his spouse are received at Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser's house. VNA/VNS Photo

CAIRO - The Egyptian and Middle East-North Africa media on August 5 published articles about Vietnamese State President Lương Cường’s state visit to Egypt from August 3-6, highlighting prospects for bilateral cooperation in various areas.

Egypt’s Youm7 daily called the visit a historic milestone, reflecting strong political will to advance economic, trade, and investment ties. Both countries aim to lift two-way trade to US$1 billion, cashing in on Việt Nam’s seafood, farm products, and textiles, as well as Egypt’s chemicals, fertilisers, and pharmaceuticals. Investment potential is robust in Halal food processing, apparel, clean energy, and logistics, the daily noted.

Al-Ahram, a newspaper with the largest readership in Egypt, said the visit marked a substantial step forward in the realisation of agreements previously signed between the two countries.

Al-Gomhuria and El-Balad underscored the growing allure of tourism and people-to-people exchanges, with Việt Nam emerging as a new draw for Middle Eastern-North African tourists while Egypt’s pyramids, Nile river, and Grand Egyptian Museum are luring Vietnamese travellers.

The Egyptian media flagged renewable energy as a key growth area, with Việt Nam’s solar and wind power expertise complementing Egypt’s green hydrogen and Red Sea wind projects. Both nations’ sustainability goals make clean energy a strategic pillar.

They also praised efforts to expand student exchanges, academic research, and the teaching of Arabic and Vietnamese at universities, seeing cultural diplomacy and connections among scholars as vital for fostering mutual understanding and enduring ties.

On national defence, security, and parliamentary cooperation, Daily News Egypt and El-Watan noted potential for stronger coordination in defence industries, maritime security, and counterterrorism. Enhanced parliamentary diplomacy, including exchanges between the two legislatures, was seen as a way to build political trust.

The Egyptian media also lauded shared stances at multilateral forums like the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, and G77 + China, stressing the strategic roles of Việt Nam as a gateway to ASEAN and Egypt as a bridge to Africa and the Arab world. These complementary positions could amplify regional connectivity.

Egypt’s MENA news agency reported ambitions to expand ties in economy, trade, investment, green energy, Halal food, finance, and banking, with negotiations for bilateral free trade agreement on the horizon. Việt Nam’s ASEAN access and Egypt’s strategic position linking Southeast Asia and Africa offer mutual market opportunities. President Cuong’s visit opened doors to capitalise on these geographic advantages for broader regional integration.

Overall, the Egyptian and regional media hailed the visit as a major turning point, unlocking the prospects of comprehensive and substantive collaboration across economy, trade, tourism, people-to-people exchanges, green energy, education, scientific research, national defence-security, multilateral engagement and peacekeeping. Beyond reaffirming political commitment, the visit also established concrete, long-term cooperation mechanisms. VNA/VNS