Egypt's Relations With Italy, Saudi Arabia Diverge
Egypt’s diplomatic and trade relations with two key partners, Saudi Arabia and Italy, appear to be heading on different paths – and it is Italian investment that is more critical for Egypt’s gas sector.
Saudi Arabia is set to sign a $20bn deal to finance Egypt’s petroleum needs during a visit by Saudi King Salman to Cairo on Thursday, reported Reuters. Bloomberg in January had indicated a deal to fund $20bn worth of Saudi oil product imports over five years was on the horizon. Separately the Saudi-Egyptian Business Council this week said that Saudi private investors are sinking $4bn into Suez Canal, energy and farming projects.
However in the Italian Senate, the country’s foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni on April 5 criticised a lack of cooperation between Egyptian authorities and Italian investigators looking into the torture and killing of a Cambridge University researcher, Giulio Regeni, who was found dead on February 3.
Although experts have suggested that Egypt's security services were responsible, the authorities instead arrested members of a criminal gang. Regeni was studying Egyptian trade unions for his doctorate.
The affair has cast a pall over Eni’s project to develop 30 Tcf of Zohr gas reserves offshore Egypt, although there's no suggestion as yet that it could be compromised. Speaking in London on March 18, Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said Regeni's death had made relations between Egypt and Italy “very difficult” although he claimed progress over investigations had been made in the past two weeks.
That is not borne out by Gentiloni’s remarks. Of the arrests, he told the Senate on April 5: “The Italian government will not accept a convenient truth.”
Gentiloni said Rome was looking for a “gear shift” at meetings with Egyptian investigators on April 7-8 and – if this did not happen – “the Italian government will take appropriate and proportionate measures” as the state is “required to defend the memory of this young Italian and Italy’s dignity.”
Mark Smedley