President Abdel Fattah El Sisi held wide-ranging talks in Paris yesterday with Egypt’s top European ally on day one of a two-day state visit. Commercial and economic ties featured prominently on the agenda alongside the crisis in Libya and regional security issues as El Sisi sat down with French President Emmanuel Macron, Ittihadiya said in a statement.

The two used a post-meeting press conference to reiterate commitments to boosting French investment in Egypt as well as to fighting terrorism in the region and securing a peace agreement in Libya (watch, runtime: 41:26). France and Egypt have steadily deepened economic, political and military ties since 2014, with French companies increasing investment in the country and France becoming a top supplier to Egypt of defense material.

Cooperation on “the growing challenges” of the eastern Mediterranean featured in a separate sit-down between El Sisi and French Defense Minister Florence Parly, Ittihadiya said.

France has no intention of ending arms sales over human rights concerns, Macron said during the press conference, adding, “I will not condition matters of defense and economic cooperation on these disagreements. … It is more effective to have a policy of demanding dialogue than a boycott, which would only reduce the effectiveness of one our partners in the fight against terrorism,” according to Reuters. El Sisi, meanwhile, addressed Macron’s recent criticism of Islam as a “religion in crisis”; the French president was speaking after terror incidents in November.