Cairo and Washington agreed on Wednesday to strengthen their military and security ties, given their importance in reinforcing efforts to restore security and stability in the Middle East region. During a meeting with visiting US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stressed his country’s keenness on strengthening the strategic partnership with Washington. The President also emphasized Egypt’s commitment to further intensifying cooperation and coordination between the two countries in an array of areas, particularly in the military and security fields, which plays an important role in restoring security and stability and consolidating peace in the Middle East region, according to presidential spokesman Ahmed Fahmy. For his part, the US Secretary of Defense highly appreciated Egypt’s key role in the Middle East as a rational and responsible stabilizing force. He stressed Washington’s commitment to further advancing and strengthening cooperation and the strategic partnership with Egypt, particularly their defense cooperation, which constitutes a fundamental cornerstone in the two countries’ relations. In a Twitter post ahead of his meeting with Sisi, Austin said Wednesday that America’s defense partnership with Egypt is an “essential pillar” of Washington’s commitment to the Middle East. “I’m here to strengthen our coordination on key issues and to pursue opportunities to deepen our long-standing bilateral partnership with Egypt,” he wrote. Fahmy said the meeting between Sisi and Austin on Wednesday focused on a number of regional and international issues. “Sisi reiterated the need to exert intensive international efforts so as to achieve calm in the Palestinian territories and halt unilateral measures and escalation,” the spokesman said. The President also confirmed that the two-state solution, according to the relevant references of international legitimacy, is considered the pathway toward achieving just and comprehensive peace for the benefit of the peoples of the region. Sisi and Austin then touched on efforts to reinforce peace and stability at the international level, in light of the successive global crises, which cast shadow on the various countries around the world. The meeting was attended by Egypt’s Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Minister of Defense and Military Production, General Mohamed Zaki, and US Chargé d’Affaires, ad interim, to the Arab Republic of Egypt, Ambassador Daniel Rubinstein.