INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL ISSUES M. L. BOGDANOV Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for the Middle East Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Keywords: Russia, Egypt, Russian-Egyptian dialogue On February 12-13, 2014, the first joint visit of the Egyptian Foreign and Defense Ministers in the history of Russian-Egyptian relations was held in Moscow to participate in the second meeting with their Russian counterparts in the "two plus two" format (the first such meeting was held in Cairo in November 2013). The participants of the meeting were received by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin. Speaking about the significance of the talks with First Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah Sisi and Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy, our Minister Sergey Lavrov noted the mutual desire of Moscow and Cairo to further strengthen bilateral relations based on a solid foundation of friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation. At the same time, it was emphasized that over the past decades, Russia and Egypt have repeatedly found joint responses to common challenges and threats faced by the Middle East and North Africa region [1]. In the light of such a statement, we believe that it would be relevant and useful to try to generalize and systematize the experience gained in the period after the collapse of the USSR in implementing our cooperation with Egypt on international and regional issues in the new geopolitical conditions. Since the presidency of Anwar Sadat (1970-1981-ed.), it was considered that Egypt, of course, is included in the sphere of influence of the United States and in general - the West. However, this largest Arab country by population has always sought to play the role of a regional power-the leader of the Middle East and North Africa. Given these ambitions, Cairo's policy often contradicted or did not coincide with the course of the United States and the West. This objectively ope ... Read more