Saudi Arabia and Egypt will soon be connected by a bridge over the Red Sea, Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdelaziz said.
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According to Ynet News, the Saudi-Egyptian deal on Red Sea Islands comes after Saudi King Salman visited Cairo.
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi said that this heralds a “strategic partnership” between the two Arab allied countries.
A beaming Sisi, who minutes earlier had presented the king with the ceremonial Nile Collar, suggested naming the structure the “King Salman Bin Abdel Aziz Bridge”.
The Egyptian cabinet announced in a statement released on Saturday that both islands fall within the territorial waters of Saudi Arabia as codified in the maritime border agreement signed between Cairo and Riyadh the previous day.
The agreements, signed with the Saudi finance minister, covered development in the Sinai peninsula, agriculture, housing and a university, Nasr told Al-Ahram newspaper.
“I believe that the special nature of the Saudi-Egyptian relationship… will enable us to confront together shared challenges and to deal seriously with whoever tries to harm Arab national security”, Sisi said.
In one of the most high-profile announcements, Cairo said it had agreed to demarcate its maritime borders with Saudi Arabia, officially placing the two islands in the Straits of Tiran in Saudi territory.
So far no estimate has been given for the construction of the bridge which is going to be named after the Saudi King.
It was not mentioned where the bridge would be built, but at the closest point – Nabq, just north of Sharm el-Sheikh, in Egypt and Ras Alsheikh Hamid in Saudi Arabia – the two countries are 16km apart.
The Egyptian pound continued to drop recently despite the central bank’s efforts to bridge the huge demand and supply gap, a blow to an economy that relies heavily on imports.
An economic free-zone will be developed in Egypt’s Sinai region, and a company has also reportedly been established to develop 6sqkm of industrial areas around Egypt’s Suez Canal, worth $3.3bn.
Not mentioned publicly was Saudi Arabia’s alliance with Qatar and Turkey, both of which are accused by Egypt of supporting Islamist groups.
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The bridge also marks the growing trend of Saudi Arabia to build good cooperative relations with other Sunni-majority countries against the growing power of the Shia-led Iran.
