Nikolai Patrushev arrived after Oman for a meeting with Egyptian security officials

Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev arrived in Cairo on September 26 for negotiations with the Egyptian President’s advisers on national security and counter-terrorism issues, Faiza El-Naga and Magdi Abdelgaffar. On the Russian side, in addition to Patrushev, the consultations included “representatives of the Security Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Foreign Intelligence Service, Rosfinmonitoring, Rosatom, and the Central Bank” (without specifying names and positions).

At the meeting, according to the Security Council website, “a wide range of topics aimed at strengthening interaction was considered, the mood for fruitful cooperation within the BRICS and [на] UN site.” Not only political but also economic topics were touched upon. In particular, issues of the “financial and banking sector”, countering the financing of terrorism, combating drug trafficking, cybersecurity and nuclear energy. The parties discussed “security in the Middle East, North Africa, Mediterranean and Sahara-Sahel zone,” as well as the situation “around Ukraine.”

The last time Patrushev spoke with El-Naga and Abdelgaffar was on the sidelines of an international security meeting on May 23 in the Moscow region, RIA Novosti reports. A day before flying to Cairo, the Secretary of the Security Council was on a working visit to the Arab Sultanate of Oman.

There, Patrushev met with Crown Prince Ziyazan Haytham Al Said, held talks with the head of the Sultan’s office, Sultan Mohammed An-Naamani, and the Secretary General of the National Security Council of Oman, Idris Al Kindi. They discussed the prospects for Russian-Omani bilateral relations, in particular “cooperation in the field of information security, interaction between law enforcement agencies, intelligence services and financial intelligence.”

According to Andrei Kortunov, scientific director of the Russian International Affairs Council, Patrushev’s high foreign activity is explained by several factors. “The world is entering a period of instability, in which security issues become extremely important, including for maintaining effective economic contacts,” says the expert. “In other states, people coordinating national security issues are also increasing their external activity.”

In addition, “interaction with the leadership of countries in the global South is necessary to exchange information on important issues without intermediaries, communicating the Kremlin’s views to foreign colleagues without distortion,” Kortunov believes. “Patrushev himself and his structure in terms of apparatus weight, status and capabilities are not inferior to other state actors engaged in international activities,” the expert believes.

Patrushev’s visit to Egypt should be considered comprehensively, in the context of the geography and sequence of visits this summer, says Grigory Lukyanov, a researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The most active international contacts of the Security Council Secretary in recent months were in July, when he attended a meeting of high representatives of the BRICS countries in charge of security issues (see chart).

Lukyanov believes that activity in Africa is related to security issues of the international transport corridor (ITC) “North-South” (links the northwestern part of the Eurasian Economic Union and Europe with the states of Central Asia, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. – Vedomosti), movement of goods and project expansion. For the functioning and development of the ITC in the direction of Africa, not only physical security is important, but also issues of digitalization, an area of ​​security in which Russia is especially sensitive.

Oman, where Patrushev was before arriving in Cairo, is an important intermediate point for the development of a transport corridor and the delivery of Russian goods both to the West, in the African and Mediterranean direction through the Red Sea and Egypt, and to the wider Indo-Pacific region, the expert notes. “In addition, Russia and Egypt are concerned about ensuring the construction and development of the nuclear power plant project in El-Dabaa, ensuring security in a broad sense and the development of the Russian-Egyptian industrial zone being created along the Suez Canal against the backdrop of the destructive influence of Western sanctions,” recalls Lukyanov.

Finally, Russia is concerned about the smuggling of weapons from Africa to the war zone in Ukraine, adds Lukyanov. And Egypt is an important link in possible corresponding chains: in August, The Wall Street Journal reported that in March, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin asked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to transfer artillery shells, anti-tank missiles, air defense systems and small arms to Kiev , but Cairo allegedly refused.

At the same time, the expert continues, there is information that hidden arms supplies have previously been carried out from Sudan, neighboring Egypt, where a civil war began in April, so contacts with Cairo are becoming especially important for Moscow in this sense. The situation in the Sahel region, the Saar and Libya is connected with Sudan, where there is now a transfer of powers from the Wagner PMC to the Ministry of Defense; the Secretary of the Security Council could provide additional coordination in this matter, Lukyanov concludes.