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Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow for trade talks focused on reviving Egypt's civil nuclear programme and arms purchases.
The head of Russia's security council, Igor Ivanov, said this week that Russia hopes to win an international tender for building nuclear power stations in Egypt.
Ahead of the visit, Egypt's ambassador to Moscow, Izzat Saad, hailed Russia's international role and said the resumption of Egypt's atomic energy programme would be a key issue in talks here.
Mubarak is to meet the heads of energy giants Gazprom, Lukoil and UES, and the directors of car maker Avtovaz, jetmaker MiG and arms exporter Rosoboronexport during his visit, the Vremya Novostei daily said.
Analysts said the visit could rile the United States, particularly because of Egypt's apparent willingness to buy weapons from Russia rather than its traditional US suppliers.
A Kremlin official said Mubarak and Putin will also discuss Middle East issues and look for ways to “overcome negative tendencies in the development of the situation in the Middle East”.
Russia, part of the diplomatic “quartet” of powers charged with settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict along with the European Union, the United Nations and the United States, is widening its diplomatic role in the region.
In interviews with Russian dailies ahead of his visit, Mubarak spoke of Egypt's interest in reviving its nuclear programme, saying this would not go against the interests of any other country.
Egypt drew up plans to build eight nuclear power stations at the end of the 1970s but the project was abandoned in 1986 after the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe.
Mubarak, who undertook military studies in Moscow in the 1960s, also praised Russia's anti-aircraft systems and fighter jets as “the best in the world” in an interview with Vremya Novostei.
“The arms market is extremely politicised. It is very important who you buy from,” said Ruslan Pukhov, an arms specialist at the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow.
Pukhov said Mubarak's visit might produce a deal on the purchase of MiG fighter jets and that these purchases could anger Egypt's traditional US arms suppliers.
The trade turnover between Russia and Egypt amounted to 1.6 billion dollars in 2005 and grew by 52 percent in the first eight months of this year, the Kremlin official said.
In another interview, with the official Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper, Mubarak said he and Putin, both presidents with strong leadership styles, would see eye-to-eye on politics.
“There is no universal democratic model, since each people can implement the democracy that corresponds to the nature of that people, its culture, its characteristics and its customs,” Mubarak said.
“I was very pleased when President Putin talked about Russia's democracy a few months ago. I am sure that Putin wanted to say the same thing,” Mubarak added.
