All rights reserved. Afif Abu Much | Coronavirus | Oct 7, 2020, Al-Monitor Staff | Coronavirus | Oct 5, 2020, Muhammed Magdy | Water Issues | Oct 6, 2020, A correspondent in Egypt | Sinai | Oct 6, 2020, Mohamed Saied | Cultural heritage | Oct 7, 2020, good news for Russia, Egypt and the entire Arab world. The pharmacologist added that the third stage, in which the vaccine is evaluated, is the most crucial. As recently as late August, the Ryazan Oblast district of Russia saw the Defenders of Friendship drills involving Russian, Belarusian and Egyptian paratroopers who, according to the legend, were tasked with recapturing an airfield seized by militants. Sign up for the Week in Review newsletter. Photo by Sergei Chirikov/Pool via REUTERS. Following only two months of testing, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin approved the drug in mid-August and the country began to market the medication as “Sputnik V, the first registered vaccine against COVID-19.”, In an Aug. 19 interview with Egypt’s state news agency MENA, Georgy Borisenko, the Russian ambassador in Cairo, said that Moscow is looking forward to “establishing a partnership” with Egypt to produce Sputnik V. Borisenko stated that he had informed the Egyptian ministries of foreign affairs and health about the possibility of holding bilateral discussions on producing the vaccine in Egypt and provided their ministers with “all the necessary information.”. The military scenario must always be plausible. As the military pointed out, the maneuvers involving Egypt’s warplanes and helicopters and Russia’s military ground vehicles did not target any third country. Választásait bármikor módosíthatja az Adatvédelmi lehetőségek oldalon. Yet some Russian military observers drew attention to the fact that the presentation slides featured America’s F-22 Raptor fighters, CH-47 Chinook helicopters, cruise missiles and laser-guided bombs as the potential targets for Russia and Egypt. According to Haddad, the Russian vaccine “has passed only two phases combined in a single step, and was tested on a very small number of military personnel.”. Nov 7, 2019 Russia and Egypt are deepening and expanding military and technical cooperation. In this context, Egypt plays an important role. Thus, the news in 2016 about the GRU, or the Main Intelligence Directorate, forces’ training of the Egyptian security forces during the anti-terror campaign in Sinai was followed by reports that Khalifa Hifter was receiving intelligence from the Russian military based in Egypt. “Egypt has a great history in the pharmaceutical industry, a huge population and a distinguished location in the Middle East," Mostafa Kamel Elsayed, a professor of political science at Cairo University, told Al-Monitor. Such horse trading may be congruent with the system of relations Russia and Egypt are building. On the one hand, Egypt is trying to ditch Arab NATO declared by Donald Trump, which may be fraught with cuts in financial aid from the United States as well as Saudi Arabia and the UAE. On the other hand, given the prospect of sanctions for arms transfers from Russia under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, Cairo can bargain with Moscow for better deals on the sale of Russian military hardware, including the purchasing of Su-35 jet fighters that is now allegedly underway. Russia may have several reasons not to rush into lifting the ban on charter flights. Here's what you can now access. The former was represented by anti-aircraft gunners of various units from the Volgograd region, the Krasnodar Krai, North Ossetia and Crimea. Since 2015, the militaries of the two states have been training to combat terrorism with unfailing regularity, but charter flights to Egyptian resorts have yet to resume. In fact, Russia seeks to build a network of alliances to secure a firmer foothold on a regional scale. The third is prefabrication, in which the drug is tested on thousands of people of different races and ages in various countries. The meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the margins of the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi did not lead to a breakthrough on the issue either. © 2020 Al-Monitor, LLC. Russia and Egypt are deepening and expanding military and technical cooperation. The trade exchange between the two countries reached $6.2 billion in 2019, “making Moscow one of the top 10 trading partners of Egypt," he underlined. The link to reset the password will be sent to your email address. The Russian ambassador also met with Minister of Trade and Industry Nevin Gamea on Sept. 13, expressing Moscow's intentions to cooperate with Egypt in fighting the pandemic by possibly producing Sputnik V with Egyptian pharmaceutical companies. Russia's sovereign wealth fund, RDIF, said on Wednesday it had agreed to supply the vaccine doses to Egypt … The Arrow of Friendship-1 joint military drills were announced back in January 2019. Cairo also faces an ambiguous attitude of some European manufacturers. Khalid Hassan | Civil Society | Oct 4, 2020, Amr Emam | Political Islam | Sep 27, 2020, Al-Monitor Staff | Iran-US tensions | Sep 24, 2020. Russia is also offering nuclear power technology for several African countries, including the construction of the first nuclear plant in Egypt, financed by a $25bn (£19bn) loan. Al-Monitor - Intelligence on the trends shaping the Middle East. On Nov. 1, integrated units destroyed the enemy’s helicopters after they, according to the scenario, had attacked Egypt’s tank units during the military march. Az Adatvédelmi irányelvek közt és a Cookie-szabályzatban olvashat bővebben arról, hogyan használjuk fel adatait. A vial with Russia's new coronavirus vaccine is seen prior to a vaccination of a volunteer in a post-registration trials, Moscow, Sept. 10, 2020. Within a year, Egypt will be ready to manufacture this drug on its soil.” The official added that his country had asked Egypt to test Sputnik V and stated that the price of the Russian drug “will be much lower than any competing vaccine, whether from the United States or from other countries.”, Dmitriev noted, “There are requests for a billion doses of the vaccine, most of them from the Arab world.”. You’re now subscribed to Al-Monitor. Since 2015, Russia and Egypt have repeatedly held joint naval and airborne counterterrorism exercises. Haddad said that testing of the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford was halted on Sept. 9 in the third stage after reports of serious side effects during clinical trials. A(z) Yahoo a Verizon Media része. In the meantime, in Russia it is quite commonly believed that the procrastination in the matter is part of Moscow’s deliberate policy. For more than a year, Russia’s activity on the Egyptian track has provided grounds for speculation about the prospects for setting up a Russian military base on the ground. The Russian diplomat said the vaccine could be a basis for further development of Egyptian-Russian relations. Plus get access to seven years of our archives. Here's what you can now access. © 2020 Al-Monitor, LLC. “Hundreds of millions of doses of this drug will be distributed to the world, and it will surely be a benefit to any country that produces a vaccine for COVID-19, be it Russia, the United States, China or the United Kingdom,” Elsayed concluded. Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi speaks with Russia's President Vladimir Putin during the first plenary session as part of the 2019 Russia-Africa Summit at the Sirius Park of Science and Art, Sochi, Russia, Oct. 24, 2019. “We do not doubt the Russian vaccine, but we also cannot evaluate any vaccine after passing only two stages of the long testing process,” he added. Információ az eszközéről és internetkapcsolatáról, beleértve az IP-címét, Böngészési és keresési tevékenysége a Verizon Media webhelyeinek és alkalmazásainak használata közben. Cairo is also conducting clinical trials on a Chinese vaccine. Vacsera is aware of the meetings between Russian diplomats and Egyptian politicians, Haddad pointed out, but it is still unclear whether the drug will actually be produced in Egypt. Russia’s promotion of the vaccine in Egypt has been spearheaded by Kirill A. Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the man behind the financing of Sputnik V. He said in an exclusive interview on Sept. 1 with Egyptian Channel 10, “The vaccine is good news for Russia, Egypt and the entire Arab world.”, He went on, “We are currently in negotiations with Egypt to prepare the production capacities for the vaccine. In turn, Egypt regards Russia as a reliable provider of military expertise and an alternative supplier of equipment to diversify its ties with the United States. Back in 2015, the air disaster resulted in Moscow’s decision to halt civilian air traffic to Egypt until the authorities of the country could ensure sufficient security. Ha engedélyezi a Verizon Media és partnerei részére, hogy feldolgozzák az Ön személyes adatait, válassza a(z) Elfogadom lehetőséget, ha pedig további tájékoztatást szeretne, vagy kezelné adatvédelmi lehetőségeit, akkor válassza a(z) Beállítások kezelése lehetőséget. Since the outbreak began, COVID-19 has caused more than 5,600 deaths in Egypt and the total infection tally has surpassed 100,000 cases, making Egypt the second most affected country in Africa. Al-Monitor - Intelligence on the trends shaping the Middle East. All rights reserved. Plus get access to seven years of our archives. On Sept. 3, Borisenko met with the head of the state-run Arab Organization for Industrialization, Abdelmonem Altrass, to discuss the possibility of manufacturing the vaccine in Egypt. Russia’s promotion of the vaccine in Egypt has been spearheaded by Kirill A. Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the man behind the financing of Sputnik V. He said in an exclusive interview on Sept. 1 with Egyptian Channel 10, “The vaccine is good news for Russia, Egypt and the entire Arab world.” Moscow needs to ascertain whether Egypt meets safety requirements. However, the resumption issue may well have been on the agenda during the backroom bargaining between the states, including the purchase of SSJ-100 aircraft by Egyptian airlines. Russia has clinched a deal with Egypt to supply it with 25 million doses of its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, as Moscow seeks to take a leading global role in fighting the pandemic. The latter are wary that their weapons could potentially be used to suppress protests by what they see as a new dictatorial regime in Cairo and refrain from concluding military contracts with Egypt. However, they symbolically coincided with two events — the anniversary of the crash of the Russian A321 airliner over the Sinai Peninsula, and Sinai Province’s vows of allegiance to Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi. The link to reset the password will be sent to your email address. Hospitals in Egypt have been using blood plasma from people who have recovered from the virus to treat other patients. In a statement, Altrass affirmed that the vaccine will be subjected to “the clinical trials and medical tests required to ensure the safety of citizens' health.”.