El Sisi meets Macron: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi met on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron in a visit aimed at bolstering security and defense ties. The two heads of state discussed regional issues, the war in Ukraine, and COP27, according to an Ittihadiya statement, in what was their first one-on-one meeting since Macron’s re-election in April.

Human rights issues came up during the visit: The family of a 27-year-old French backpacker who went missing in Egypt last year used El Sisi’s visit to call for an investigation into his disappearance, the Associated Press reported. The family says their pleas to Egyptian police have been met with “silence or stonewalling” for months.

El Sisi also met with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire to discuss French investments in Egypt’s development projects, particularly in the renewable sector ahead of COP27, according to a separate Ittihadiya statement.

US peacekeepers in the Red Sea’s Tiran Strait will be replaced by remote-controlled cameras, which will now be responsible for ensuring uninhibited movement in and out of the Gulf of Aqaba, Reuters reports, citing unnamed officials. Securing the coastline used to be a job delegated to the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) as a result of the 1979 US-brokered peace accord between Egypt and Israel.