CAIRO: Russian Tomsk State University (TSU) and the Russian University in Cairo signed Monday a joint training program to qualify Egyptian students to be specialists in atomic energy field, ahead of President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s three-day visit to Moscow.
The agreement came in light the cooperation between both countries in the nuclear field as Egypt and Russia reached a deal to establish a first Egyptian nuclear power plant in Mediterranean city of Dabaa, Interfax-Siberia reported.
According to the program, the students will be trained in Egyptian universities during the first three years, then in Tomsk for 2.5 years.
Président Sisi flew Tuesday to Russia for a three-day visit as he will attend Wednesday the signature of a contract between the Egyptian Ministry of Electricity and Russian state-owned nuclear company Rosatom to build the eight-reactor power plant, an official from the ministry of electricity told Youm7.
In February, Sisi and Putin announced reaching agreements on building the plant and establishing a Russian-Egyptian free trade zone.
In 1981, Egypt allocated the Dabaa area in Mediterranean governorate of Matrouh, 183.9 miles to the northwest of Cairo, to build its first nuclear plant of 55 square kilometers.
Sisi’s agenda in Russia
The president attended Tuesday the international military exhibit MAKS-2015 in Russia’s city of Zhukovsky that will last for five days, Egyptian Presidential spokesperson Alaa Youssef stated.
The exhibit will include historical aircrafts, such as the supersonic air jet Tu-144 and Tu-155 along with aircrafts from World War II, such as a MIG-3 fighter jet, Youm7 reported. Sisi is to discuss military bilateral relations with the Russian President Vladimir Putin during the exhibit.
Sisi met with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan who visited Russia to participate in the MAKS-2015 exhibition, discussing the bilateral and regional issues, Youssef added.
Sisi will meet with Chairman of the State Duma Sergey Naryshkin Tuesday, followed by a meeting between the delegations of both countries, Youssef said Tuesday.
Tuesday’s schedule will include meeting with Russia’s Minister for Industry and Trade Denis Manturov and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev, he continued.
Russian Kommersant newspaper reported Tuesday that Sisi and Putin will discuss Cairo’s willing to join the BRICS (the association of five major countries of emerging national economies including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.)