Why President El-Sisi visited Tanzania
CAPTION: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi , 2nd left, meets with Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, right, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on July 18, 2026, during an official visit to the country. (Courtesy photo).
By Dr Nadia Helmy
DAR ES SALAAM – President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s visit to Tanzania represents a pivotal step in strengthening Egypt’s presence in East Africa and securing trade routes, thus supporting the strategic objectives of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Africa, particularly its military and maritime aspects. Chinese investments in East African and Tanzanian ports, such as the Port of Dar es Salaam, bolster Egyptian strategic interests by securing alternative trade routes, enhancing Egypt’s influence in the African interior, and activating joint cooperation. Egypt and Tanzania have agreed to develop ports and maritime connectivity between the two countries.
This visit by President El-Sisi to Tanzania aligns with Chinese interests across several strategic axes, including port and logistics development. Both Egypt and China are directly contributing to the development plans for the strategic Port of Dar es Salaam, which serves as a vital maritime link for Chinese goods on the East African coast and is central to China’s Maritime and Military Silk Road.
For this reason, the intelligence, military, defense, and security agencies and circles in China support the Egyptian proposal to establish a multi-modal corridor, as Egypt has put forward a proposal to establish a direct shipping line between the Egyptian port of Safaga and the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam, which would create an integrated logistics corridor linking the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean and facilitate access to trade, including Chinese trade flowing through Egypt, to the heart of Africa.
This strengthens Egyptian-Chinese cooperation with Tanzania to support Tanzanian energy infrastructure. This is achieved through enhanced cooperation in the energy sector, with a consortium of Egyptian companies overseeing the construction of the Julius Nyerere Dam. The dam provides the necessary electrical stability to support massive Chinese-funded infrastructure projects in Tanzania, thus facilitating a strategy of regional integration and security for both Egypt and China through the Tanzania axis. Here, both Egypt and China, leveraging their political and economic influence, seek to bolster stability in the Nile Basin and the Horn of Africa.
This is a vital security environment for China, which relies on it to protect its investments and trade routes along the Belt and Road Initiative, both military and maritime. This is especially significant given China’s focus on building major ports in Tanzania as part of the Belt and Road Initiative, recognizing their crucial impact on regional trade flows and the security of global supply chains for China.
Thus, the official visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to Tanzania in July 2026 strengthened economic and logistical cooperation, particularly given Egypt’s and China’s expressed readiness to jointly participate in expanding the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam and establishing a shipping line linking it to the Egyptian port of Safaga.
These Egyptian moves in East Africa align with China’s Belt and Road Initiative for developing logistical hubs. Egypt and China are directly contributing to plans to transform the Tanzanian capital, Dar El-Salaam, into a pivotal center connecting landlocked countries far from oceans and seas to multimodal transport networks, thereby supporting trade routes extending across the Indian Ocean. This facilitates direct maritime links between Tanzania and Egyptian and Chinese interests. The Egyptian proposal aims to launch a shipping line between Safaga and Dar es Salaam to create a vital trade corridor that serves the flow of goods and enhances the volume of African trade. This strengthens the Egyptian-Chinese partnership in Tanzanian and African infrastructure, as the Egyptian-Chinese focus on ports comes as an extension of the joint Egyptian-Chinese successes in Tanzania, most notably the Julius Nyerere Dam Power Generation Project, which is being implemented by alliances of Egyptian companies, thus strengthening the infrastructure supporting major development projects.
Here, we find that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s visit to Tanzania and the cooperation in developing Tanzanian ports and logistics hubs effectively bolster Chinese interests in the African continent. The Egyptian axis represents an indirect strategic extension of China’s Silk Road, both its maritime and military components, by facilitating trade and integrating landlocked East and Central African countries into global markets through multiple maritime and land trade routes. This aligns with the strategic interests of both China and Egypt.
The Egyptian vision converges with the Chinese objectives of the Silk Road (maritime and military) in several key areas, including the development of the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam. This port represents a vital maritime gateway to the Indian Ocean, and Egypt’s efforts to develop it harmonize with China’s massive investments in East African ports. This creates an integrated transport network serving China’s commercial interests in the region, which in turn facilitates multifaceted regional and international connectivity between Tanzania, Egypt, and China.
The Egyptian proposal to establish a multimodal corridor linking Cairo to Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania (and from there to Rwanda), is a prime example, and the landlocked countries, in addition to the proposed shipping line with the Egyptian port of Safaga, contribute to creating vital supply lines that support the movement of goods. This aligns with China’s efforts to control global supply chains and establish new logistical hubs.
In other words, the exchange of logistics zones between Egypt and Tanzania and the transformation of ports into distribution centers serve China’s supply chain strategy. China aims to connect African markets with Asian and European markets through sustainable economic development axes while simultaneously developing Tanzanian infrastructure and railways to serve the interests of both Egypt and China. Cooperation in rail and road transport complements the major projects led by Beijing and Cairo to connect the eastern coast of Africa with the African continent and landlocked countries.
