Merkel meets Sisi in Cairo - her first visit to Egypt in a decade https://t.co/wpJEDxHMJW pic.twitter.com/lZoerMSxdt — Sam عمو (@sam__eg) March 2, 2017
German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sissi yesterday to discuss migrants coming from North Africa to Europe. What did the German and Arab media have to say about it?
Merkel discussed improving cooperation with Cairo to crack down on human traffickers from using Egypt as a transit country. She could be trying to reach a deal with Egypt to stem migration, similar to the EU-Turkey deal passed last year. She could provide Egypt with financial assistance for being a partner in tackling the refugee crisis.
"Cairo did not make it easy for Merkel. Although some of the newspapers in Cairo celebrated her arrival like that of an angel, even the playing of the national anthem while greeting her as she stepped off the plane was off-key," wrote Martin Gehlen from the "Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung."
"Merkel is Merkel. She is enticing Egypt with money - more backing in the fight against the terror and support in quelling the fl0od of migration from Northern Africa," wrote Michael Wiese of the "Westfäliche Nachrichten" daily newspaper out of West Germany. Merkel knows that the el-Sissi government has a precarious human record, but she needs his government's support in quelling migration in any case.
"Since Saudi Arabia's money toward Egypt has dissipated and the International Monetary Fund has been setting ever stricter conditions. El-Sissi finds a migrant deal with Germany to be opportune," wrote Eva Quadbeck and Eva Svensson of the "Rheinische Post" who were in Cairo during the meeting.
The precarious security situation in Libya, whose porous borders allow thousand migrants to transverse through on the Meditarrean to Europe, was a specific item on the agenda. "Merkel comes to Cairo with an eye on the situation in Libya because she wants to prevent two things. First the human traffickers should not succeed in starting a new migration route to Europe and Egypt's borders have to be under firm control as they are now. Egypt should also secure the Libyan border to prevent more people falling into the hands of Libyan smugglers," wrote Marc Brost and Tim Kummer of "die Zeit" national newspaper who were also in Cairo during the meeting.
Merkel has to deal with the Libyan issue by the means of Egypt, because Libya is not a stable partner. "As long as there is no effective government in place and as long as the terrible conditions for refugees persist in Libya, hopes for any EU-Turkey style agreement with Libya remain pipe dreams," wrote German analyst Thorsten Benner for Qatar-based news website al-Jazeera.
Egypt's "al-Ahram" newspaper, the Egyptian equivalent of the New York Times, put on its front page a smiling el-Sissi with the headline "500 million dollars from Germany to help Egypt carry out economic reforms." Germany wants to help Egypt reform its economy and improve the unemployment situation there. If not, there could be more Egyptians trying to get over the Mediterranean sea as part of the migration crisis.
Author: Wesley Dockery
Merkel discussed improving cooperation with Cairo to crack down on human traffickers from using Egypt as a transit country. She could be trying to reach a deal with Egypt to stem migration, similar to the EU-Turkey deal passed last year. She could provide Egypt with financial assistance for being a partner in tackling the refugee crisis.
"Cairo did not make it easy for Merkel. Although some of the newspapers in Cairo celebrated her arrival like that of an angel, even the playing of the national anthem while greeting her as she stepped off the plane was off-key," wrote Martin Gehlen from the "Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung."
"Merkel is Merkel. She is enticing Egypt with money - more backing in the fight against the terror and support in quelling the fl0od of migration from Northern Africa," wrote Michael Wiese of the "Westfäliche Nachrichten" daily newspaper out of West Germany. Merkel knows that the el-Sissi government has a precarious human record, but she needs his government's support in quelling migration in any case.
"Since Saudi Arabia's money toward Egypt has dissipated and the International Monetary Fund has been setting ever stricter conditions. El-Sissi finds a migrant deal with Germany to be opportune," wrote Eva Quadbeck and Eva Svensson of the "Rheinische Post" who were in Cairo during the meeting.
The precarious security situation in Libya, whose porous borders allow thousand migrants to transverse through on the Meditarrean to Europe, was a specific item on the agenda. "Merkel comes to Cairo with an eye on the situation in Libya because she wants to prevent two things. First the human traffickers should not succeed in starting a new migration route to Europe and Egypt's borders have to be under firm control as they are now. Egypt should also secure the Libyan border to prevent more people falling into the hands of Libyan smugglers," wrote Marc Brost and Tim Kummer of "die Zeit" national newspaper who were also in Cairo during the meeting.
Merkel has to deal with the Libyan issue by the means of Egypt, because Libya is not a stable partner. "As long as there is no effective government in place and as long as the terrible conditions for refugees persist in Libya, hopes for any EU-Turkey style agreement with Libya remain pipe dreams," wrote German analyst Thorsten Benner for Qatar-based news website al-Jazeera.
Egypt's "al-Ahram" newspaper, the Egyptian equivalent of the New York Times, put on its front page a smiling el-Sissi with the headline "500 million dollars from Germany to help Egypt carry out economic reforms." Germany wants to help Egypt reform its economy and improve the unemployment situation there. If not, there could be more Egyptians trying to get over the Mediterranean sea as part of the migration crisis.
Author: Wesley Dockery