Xi Jinping’s Cairo trip marks ‘best ties in history’ as Egypt seeks to balance West

Chinese President Xi Jinping is returning to Egypt after a decade as Beijing deepens its economic, military and diplomatic ties with Cairo and seeks to work more closely with Egypt on crises across the Middle East and Africa. Xi will visit Egypt this week following his trip to Kyrgyzstan for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, which finishes on Tuesday. China’s foreign ministry last week described relations with Egypt as being “at their best in history” and said Xi’s visit would…