Egypt and Russia Talk Up a Reactor and an Unopened Suez Zone
EGYPT · GREAT POWERS
Key Facts
—The call: Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov spoke by telephone on Wednesday 26 August. Both foreign ministries published accounts the same day.
—The reactor: Both praised progress at El-Dabaa, Egypt’s first nuclear plant. The second unit’s reactor vessel was installed on 9 July, seven months after the first.
—The plant: El-Dabaa comprises four Rosatom-built VVER-1200 reactors with a combined capacity of 4,800 megawatts. The construction contracts were signed on 11 December 2017.
—The money: The project is costed at about US$28.75 billion, financed mostly through a reported US$25 billion Russian state loan covering 85 percent. The first unit is due on the grid in 2028 and all four by 2030.
—The zone: The two ministers discussed the remaining procedures needed to activate the Russian Industrial Zone in the Suez Canal Economic Zone. It is not operating, and Russia’s own timeline puts opening around 2030.
—The flights: Abdelatty welcomed a Russian decision to open direct flights to Borg El-Arab and El Alamein.
—The imbalance: Egypt’s statistics agency put 2024 trade at US$6.6 billion, of which US$6 billion came from Russia against US$607 million going the other way. Lavrov says the total passed US$10 billion in 2025; the two sides count differently.
—The cloud: Politico has reported a leaked Egyptian regulator letter alleging construction defects at El-Dabaa. Both Rosatom and the regulator have publicly pushed back.
Egypt Russia relations were reviewed in a telephone call between the two foreign ministers on 26 August, built around a Russian-financed nuclear plant rising on the Mediterranean coast and an industrial zone at the Suez Canal that is still a plot of land. Nothing new was announced.
What the Egypt Russia call covered
Badr Abdelatty and Sergey Lavrov spoke on Wednesday 26 August. Egypt’s foreign ministry released its account the same day, reported by Ahram Online, and Russia’s foreign ministry published its own readout.
The two described El-Dabaa as one of the most prominent strategic projects between them. They also discussed the remaining procedures needed to activate the Russian Industrial Zone in the Suez Canal Economic Zone.
Beyond that, the conversation ranged over the escalation in the Gulf, the Palestinian question and Russia’s partnerships with the African Union and the Arab League. It produced no agreement and no new figure.
Abdelatty separately welcomed a decision by Russia’s air transport regulator to open direct flights from Russia to Borg El-Arab and El Alamein. Egypt had already publicly welcomed the same decision earlier in August.
El-Dabaa is the substance of the relationship
The plant comprises four Rosatom-built VVER-1200 reactors with a combined capacity of 4,800 megawatts, on the Mediterranean coast in Matrouh province, west of Alexandria. It will be Egypt’s first nuclear facility.
The construction contracts were signed on 11 December 2017, witnessed by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and President Vladimir Putin. The reactor pressure vessel for the second unit was installed on 9 July this year, seven months after the same milestone on the first.
Rosatom says more than 25,000 people work on the site daily, most of them Egyptian. The next major step is welding the main coolant pipeline, with the first nuclear fuel due in the first half of 2027.
The cost is put at about US$28.75 billion, with a reported US$25 billion Russian state loan covering 85 percent and Egypt financing the rest. The first of the four units is due to connect to the grid in 2028, with the remainder online by 2030.
That is the official timetable rather than a commitment anyone has underwritten, and the project has slipped before. Egypt’s electricity minister said this month that Cairo will also open talks with Rosatom on adding further reactors beyond the four.
The industrial zone has been about to open for years
The Russian Industrial Zone sits inside the Suez Canal Economic Zone, the flagship of Egypt’s effort to convert canal traffic into manufacturing. The ministers’ discussion of speeding up the remaining procedures is the story.
A zone whose procedures still need accelerating is a zone that is not yet working. It has been in this condition for most of a decade.
The intergovernmental agreement creating it was signed in May 2018 and ratified by Egypt’s parliament that November. The talk then was of US$7 billion in Russian investment and 35,000 jobs.
The land question was settled only in May 2025, when the zone authority and a specially created Russian developer signed a 49-year usufruct contract with a three-year rent-free grace period. A usufruct is a long-term right to use land without owning it.
Russia’s own timeline is not fast. Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk said in September 2025 that operations are planned for 2030, perhaps a little earlier, with the years 2026 to 2029 set aside for design and construction.
What exists today is a 50-hectare plot near the port of Ain Sokhna. Russian officials say more than ten companies have expressed interest in setting up there.
The trade relationship is heavily one-sided
Bilateral trade reached US$6.6 billion in 2024, up from US$5.6 billion in 2023, according to CAPMAS, Egypt’s state statistics agency. Imports from Russia, dominated by cereals at US$3.1 billion and iron and steel at US$1.3 billion, accounted for US$6 billion of that.
Egyptian exports to Russia came to US$607 million, mostly fruit, nuts and vegetables. That is a ratio of roughly ten to one in Moscow’s favour.
Russian officials quote larger numbers on a different counting basis. Moscow’s ambassador in Cairo put 2024 trade at US$8 billion, and Lavrov said in April that the total passed US$10 billion in 2025.
Both sets of figures are cited here as their sources state them. What is not in dispute is the direction of the imbalance.
The cloud over the concrete
In August, Politico reported a confidential letter dated 4 June from Egypt’s Nuclear Power Plants Authority to Rosatom’s management. It alleged concrete defects and safety-culture breaches at the site, and was reported alongside internal Rosatom documents pointing to schedule risk.
One leaked internal assessment reportedly rated as high the risk that the first unit’s start-up slips from September 2028 to March 2030. The documents were not independently verified.
Both parties pushed back in public. The authority said the reporting drew technical observations out of their engineering context and that no construction stage is accepted until corrective work and tests are complete, while Rosatom said it applies the highest safety standards.
None of that cancels the milestone diplomacy. It is worth holding alongside this week’s call, because the two governments praising progress are also the two parties to the dispute.
Why the balancing act is the point
Cairo is deepening a Russian-financed nuclear and industrial footprint at the mouth of the Suez Canal while simultaneously courting Washington on ports, investment and regional diplomacy. It is not choosing.
That is the clearest current example of an African state monetising great-power competition rather than picking a side. Egypt has been unusually good at it.
The risk is that the assets are real and the leverage is not. A reactor financed by a Russian loan is a thirty-year relationship whatever Cairo’s other commitments turn out to be.
For readers outside the region the useful test is delivery. Watch whether the industrial zone opens and whether El-Dabaa meets its window, rather than what either foreign ministry says about the partnership.
Frequently asked questions
What is El-Dabaa?
It is Egypt’s first nuclear power plant, comprising four Rosatom-built VVER-1200 reactors with a combined capacity of 4,800 megawatts. The first unit is due on the grid in 2028 and all four by 2030.
How is the plant financed?
The project is costed at about US$28.75 billion and financed mostly through a reported US$25 billion Russian state loan covering 85 percent of it. Egypt finances the remainder.
Is the Russian Industrial Zone in the Suez area operating?
No. The agreement dates from May 2018 and the land contract from May 2025, but the zone is still a plot of land. Russia says operations are planned for around 2030.
How large is trade between Egypt and Russia?
Egypt’s statistics agency put it at US$6.6 billion in 2024, with US$6 billion flowing from Russia and US$607 million to it. Russian officials cite more than US$10 billion for 2025 on a different counting basis.
Connected Coverage
Egypt’s wider positioning runs through its diplomatic ring around Ethiopia and canal revenue rising because Hormuz was shut. The wider contest is set out in Africa: The New Scramble, with more on our Northern Africa hub.
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