Transient French-Egyptian maritime training in the Mediterranean

On January 22, 2022, Egypt announced the conducting of a "passing naval drill" with France in the Mediterranean to the north of the country.

According to a statement by the Egyptian army, "The Egyptian and French navies carried out a naval exercise in the Northern Fleet in the Mediterranean, with the participation of the Egyptian frigate (Port Said) and the French frigate (LA PROVENCE)."

The training included, according to the Egyptian army's statement, "a set of naval combat activities, most notably training to implement joint operations to repel air attack, and the implementation of the sailing formations exercise, in addition to defense exercises against atypical threats." This training is the second of its kind with France in a short period of time. Last August, an air exercise was held in which Egyptian and French planes participated, with the aim of practicing refueling in the air.

During the past years, Egypt intensified conducting military exercises with France. The military armament deals from Paris represented the "spearhead" in the relations between the two countries. Along with the United States and Russia, France has become one of the most important sources of Egyptian armament, since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took power in June 2014. It can be said; however, that military relations between Egypt and France are at their best at present; especially those related to the naval maneuvers between the armies of the two countries in the Mediterranean, where gas fields are under dispute between several countries in the region on top Egypt, Israel, Turkey and Libya.

France supports an alliance comprising Egypt, Israel, Cyprus and Greece, while Turkey leads an alliance that includes Turkish Cyprus and Libya. The essence of these alliances is the gas fields in the Mediterranean, where these countries have disputes over the maritime borders between them.

Previous years witnessed disputes between these countries over the maritime borders several times; especially between Cyprus and Turkey, and between Turkey and Egypt. However, the escalation regressed last year as a result of the start of an "Egyptian-Turkish" dialogue. The Egyptian description, “transient training”, of the “French-Egyptian” naval maneuver in the Mediterranean can be understood as reassuring the Mediterranean countries, that the military maneuver is not directed against them; particularly Turkey, because at the time the naval maneuver was taking place, an official Egyptian delegation of merchants was visiting Ankara and meeting government officials in the context of strengthening economic relations between the two countries; which is in turn intended to strengthen political relations between them, as relations had soured and gone through many stages of conflict during past years. What reflects the improvement in political and economic relations between Egypt and Turkey during the past year, and this one is the value of Turkish exports to Egypt during the past year which went up to 4.5 billion dollars- an increase of 44.2% compared to 2020 - while the value of its imports from Egypt amounted to 2.2 billion dollars, an increase of 28.4%.