President Donald Trump of the United States and his Egyptian counterpart -Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi – met at the White House on Tuesday during the latter’s official visit to the US. In a space of two years, this is the second visit of the Egyptian strong man to the US. The two leaders have reportedly discussed issues like fight against terrorism and how to augment bilateral trade. Trump has referred to the Egyptian leader as a great president and commented that the relationship between the two countries was at an all-time high. In the meantime, human rights groups have criticized the Egyptian government’s clampdown on dissent and his strong actions against those who do not toe in line with the government policies. There are reports that both the presidents sidestepped core issues like human rights violation, terrorism, etc, which are reportedly rampant in Egypt. On these issues, Trump parried that he had to talk to the Egyptian counterpart about trade, investment, military cooperation etc without giving a direct and candid response to these questions.
