President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry sat down with the EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs, and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos to discuss cooperating on controlling illegal migration. El Sisi stressed that Egypt has been working to curb the flow of illegal migration, and that no incidents of refugee immigration via the Mediterranean from Egypt’s shores have been reported since 2016. Shoukry also told Avramopoulos that Egypt refuses to host refugees in camps due to humanitarian and legal considerations, and that the state prefers to allow refugees to integrate with the local community. Shoukry and Avramopoulos’ meeting is the first round of Egyptian-European talks on migration.

El Sisi also met with French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly to discuss increasing military and security cooperation, Ittihadiya said in a statement. The war against terror and regional security issues, including the ongoing war in Libya, also came up during discussions. Defense Minister Sedki Sobhi, who sat in on the meeting, also accompanied Parly on a visit to one of the airbases where Egypt’s Air Forces house French Rafale fighters, Ahram Gate reports.