King Salman has announced that a bridge connecting Egypt and Saudi Arabia would be built across the Red Sea following a meeting with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
There has been long-held suggestions of the construction of a 30 mile bridge, stretching from Ras Nasrani, close to the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to Ras Hamid in northwestern Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia is also expected to sign a $20 billion deal to finance Egypt’s oil needs for the next five years and a $1.5 billion deal to develop its Sinai region.
Saudi businessmen are investing $4 billion in projects including the Suez Canal, energy and agriculture, and have already deposited 10 percent of that sum in Egyptian banks, the deputy head of the Saudi-Egyptian Business Council said this week.
Saudi Arabia’s financial support for strategic ally Egypt will no longer involve ‘free money’ and will increasingly take the form of loans that provide returns to help it grapple with low oil prices, a Saudi businessman familiar with the matter said.
