CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has praised Egypt-Russia relations during a speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. He said: “Russia is an important partner for Egypt in various fields, and relations between the two countries are distinguished.” During his speech, El-Sisi added: “Egypt and Russia are implementing large and ambitious projects that serve the interests of both countries,” noting that “the El Dabaa nuclear plant project is one of the important projects for cooperation with Russia.” The Egyptian president said: “This comes in the context of the Egyptian state’s strategy to expand national projects to use new and renewable energy sources, as well as the project to establish the Russian industrial zone in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, to be an important platform for the advancement of industry in Africa, in addition to cooperation between the two countries to develop the Egyptian railway network and other joint projects that serve the interests of the two peoples.” El-Sisi added: “Egypt is proud of strong historical relations with the Russian Federation, as well as the tangible development witnessed by the relations between the two countries in recent years in many vital sectors of the economy of the two countries, and the well-being of the two peoples.” He said that Egypt will be a guest country in this year’s forum session on the 25th anniversary of its launch, “which confirms the distinguished level that Egyptian-Russian economic relations have reached over recent years.” He added: “This year’s forum is being held under unprecedented political and economic circumstances, and challenges of a strategic nature, and we hope that the forum’s outputs will contribute to finding effective solutions to these challenges, in a way that mitigates the impact of the global economic crisis and its negative repercussions on many countries of the world, especially on the economies of emerging countries. “Despite the economic efforts in Egypt, attempts to rise have recently collided with economic crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Soon the world partially recovered from its effects, until a major economic crisis overtook us, which cast a shadow on growth rates and negatively affected the economy and state budgets.” He stressed that addressing the crisis also “requires an international effort and cooperation from all parties in order to restore things to normal.” The leader called on companies taking part in the forum to take advantage of the opportunities offered by investment in Egypt.