Egypt | Macron to press counterpart on human rights

French President Emmanuel Macron is to hold talks today [Macau time] with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo, saying beforehand that he wants to boost ties with an important ally to fight terrorism but also use the visit to encourage respect for human rights.

Macron, heading a large delegation on a three-day trip to the Arab world’s most populous country, said he wants to “pursue a truthful dialogue on topics of public freedoms and human rights” — an area he feels Egypt has not progressed enough on since he raised it with officials earlier in his mandate.

France, which considers itself the birthplace of human rights, has come under pressure by advocates to raise the matter with general-turned-President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, whose human rights record has been widely condemned and is seen as worsening.

Macron said that too many normal people “who do not threaten the regime’s stability” were being jailed.

“It is on this area of what is happening in Egypt that I will continue to focus things. I will do it more openly during this trip,” Macron told reporters yesterday, adding that better treatment for political opponents was in the interest of el-Sissi and Egypt.

Macron said he felt the current crackdown on opposition in Egypt, begun after el-Sissi overthrew his elected but divisive Islamist predecessor in 2013, had become worse than under the country’s longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, who was overthrown in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising.

“I think what is happening here sooner or later threatens the stability of Egypt,” Macron said. “That’s to say, I think that the policies as they are being done are perceived by intellectuals, the Egyptian civil society, as being even stronger than [under] the Mubarak regime.”

Macron also said that he would raise specific names with el-Sissi in a confidential discussion. Aside from heightened public emphasis on human rights, he did not mention raising any new specific levers to try and incentivize the Egyptian leader, who has faced no real competition in parliament or elections.

Rights groups and activists have urged France and other Western powers to halt weapons sales to Egypt, a major purchaser, until it shows improvement on the way it treats its own citizenry. But Macron dismissed using such pressure, saying it was important to respect Egypt’s sovereignty and not cut it off because that could drive it further into the arms of the West’s authoritarian rivals, Russia and China, which el-Sissi has courted.

Asked specifically if human rights issues could affect specific arms sales, such as one under discussion for additional Rafale advanced fighter jets to Egypt, Macron said such matters were separate.

“I would differentiate between the two subjects, they are not linked for us and they never were.”

Macron arrived Sunday in Egypt and visited the country’s south, where he toured the famed temple of Abu Simbel and other archaeological sites. He is to meet el-Sissi later on Monday, when he will sign several bilateral accords.

His delegation includes government ministers, two dozen representatives from academic, cultural, and scientific fields, and a dozen business leaders – including the heads of Rafale producer Dassault.

Macron will also dine with local business leaders and meet the heads of Egypt’s Christian and Muslim communities during the trip, his first to Egypt since taking office in 2017. Brian Rohan, Cairo, AP