Hungary pushes EU to give Egypt more support on anti-terrorism + economic recovery: The EU should accept Egypt as a strategic partner and provide security and economic assistance to Egypt to help build the economy and protect its borders, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at a joint press conference after the Visegrad (V4) summit with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi in Budapest yesterday. Orban stressed Egypt’s position as a key ally to the EU in coping with migration, according to a Hungarian government statement. . The Hungarian prime minister’s statements take us back to 2017, when Egypt was hoping to land a Turkey-style migration pact that would have seen Egypt step up its efforts to stop the flow of migrants in return for substantial investments and other financial investment from the EU.

El Sisi also touched on Egypt’s efforts to integrate refugees and raise rural living standards during his speech at the summit, telling leaders of the group’s member countries — Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic — that there was a need for Europe to have a better understanding of events in Egypt, according to an Ittihadiya statement. Egypt joined the V4 summit for the second time, after being invited for the first time in 2017.

El Sisi also talked GERD in a one-on-one with his Hungarian counterpart, János Áder, Ittihadiya said in a statement. El Sisi reiterated that Egypt is after a binding agreement with Ethiopia on filling and operating the dam to resolve the dispute, and that it’s not asking for more than its fair share of Nile water.

ELSEWHERE IN DIPLOMACY- House Speaker Hanafy El Gebali and Senate President Abdel-Wahab Abdel-Razeq met with South Korea’s National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug on Monday to discuss Egypt’s diplomatic role in restoring peace on the Korean peninsula. Park met with El Sisi earlier this week to discuss economic cooperation and international security.