Russia's Putin to visit Egypt to lay foundation of El-Dabaa nuclear power plant

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit Egypt on Tuesday, 23 January, to join his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in laying the foundation of El-Dabaa, Egypt's first-ever nuclear power plant (NPP).

Both Putin and Sisi will take part in an official ceremony of the final stage of pouring the concrete of the fourth reactor of Dabaa developed by the Russian state atomic energy corporation ROSATOM  in Dabaa city, located in the Mediterranean Marsa Matrouh province, about 320 kilometres northwest of the capital Cairo, Egyptian news outlets reported.

The long-awaited NPP, which will operate with a 120-megawatt capacity for each of its four reactors, costs US$28.75 billion; about 85 per cent of it is financed by Russia and paid by Egypt over a 22-year loan with an annual three per cent interest rate as per a bilateral agreement signed back in 2015.

Egypt's Nuclear Power Plants Authority and ROSATOM began building the first and second nuclear reactors in 2022, while the foundation was laid for the third a year later.

Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports said the NPP will be ready to operate by 2028.

Since Sisi took power following a military coup in 2013, he has maintained friendly ties with Russia in several fields, which became somewhat problematic following the Russian war on Ukraine.