US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Thursday and “addressed aspects of military and security cooperation between the two countries,” AFP reports. Mattis reiterated US commitment to reinvigorating military cooperation with Egypt and broadening its prospects. The talks also touched on the military’s counterinsurgency in the Sinai Peninsula. AFP says “the Pentagon is also concerned with preventing extremists from crossing Libya’s porous border with Egypt and the reported presence of Russian troops in Egypt’s western desert, which Cairo has denied.” When Mattis met with El Sisi at the Pentagon during his trip to the Pentagon, he had said, “I am among those who believe that no country is more critical to the long-term stability of the Middle East than Egypt,” according to Stars and Stripes. Mattis flew to Israel and Qatar after his brief trip to Egypt.

President Sisi met with President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Joseph Kabila in Cairo yesterday to discuss bilateral ties and increasing economic cooperation between the two countries, Al Masry Al Youm reports. El Sisi also met yesterday with Oman’s Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf bin Alawi to discuss regional developments and the Egyptian-Omani joint committee meeting set to be held in Muscat this year, according to an emailed statement.