El-Sisi in Jakarta: Trade promises, a Nile pledge and an outdated Palestine formula

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi landed in Jakarta on Saturday evening, 10 October 2026, at the end of an Asian tour that began in South Korea and passed through Malaysia.

The route tells a story. Cairo is looking east for money, technology and friends while its own region burns. Jakarta wants a firm partner at the far end of the sea route linking Asia to Europe.

The two presidents had met only a month earlier at the BRICS summit in New Delhi. BRICS is a club of large developing economies that both countries have joined. Meeting again so soon signals hedging: spreading bets across many partners so that no single power has too much control.

In April 2025 the two leaders agreed to raise relations to a “strategic partnership”, a promise of long-term cooperation. On Sunday their foreign ministers signed an action plan to give that label real tasks.

Smaller agreements covered visa-free entry for officials, shared statistics and fisheries. The fisheries deal matters: both nations lose money to illegal boats and can share ways to track them.

The economy is the weak point. President Prabowo Subianto said both sides will work toward an Economic Partnership Agreement, a deal that cuts taxes and rules on goods crossing the border. He also welcomed a joint investment fund.

Egypt badly needs foreign investment. Indonesia wants new buyers in Africa and the Arab world, and Egypt could be the gateway. Yet no figures were announced, so these remain intentions.

Defence may be the most commercial item. The leaders agreed to deepen defence industry cooperation. Egypt is a major arms buyer, and Indonesian state companies building ships, aircraft and ammunition want export orders.

Education supports this. Egypt offered more scholarships in medicine, engineering and science, adding to the thousands of Indonesians already at Al-Azhar University. They are the future carriers of the relationship.

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Security shaped the mood. A day before the talks, an attack on Riyadh’s main airport killed 12 people, while fighting in Yemen grew near the Bab al-Mandab, the Red Sea’s southern gate.

Ships that avoid it sail around Africa, raising costs for Indonesian exporters and cutting Egypt’s Suez Canal income. The leaders’ call for calm is about trade as much as morals.

The boldest step was on water. Prabowo declared that Indonesia will back Egypt’s efforts to secure its rights to the Nile. Egypt gets nearly all its fresh water from the river and fears Ethiopia’s giant dam upstream will reduce the flow.

For a country that normally avoids picking sides, this is a real departure. It buys trust in Cairo, but Ethiopia is also a BRICS member and a growing market. Indonesian diplomats must now remain a friend to both.

On Palestine, both leaders condemned Israeli settlements, and el-Sisi repeated the two-state formula based on the 1967 borders. That formula is obsolete. Thirty years after Oslo, settlements have swallowed the land and real talks stopped long ago. Defenders say it is the only plan with United Nations backing, but a goal that cannot be reached is not a policy.

Jakarta and Cairo would help Palestinians more by calling instead for one Palestinian state, with equal citizenship and one vote for everyone between the river and the sea. 

Both leaders also pledged to help rebuild Gaza. Without a real political solution, there is little point. Concrete without a political answer only pays for the next ruins.

Prabowo invited el-Sisi to treat Indonesia as a second home, and Indonesian officials often recall that Egypt was the first country to recognise Indonesia’s independence. History opens the door; strategy must walk through it.

By el-Sisi’s next visit, are trade talks under way, is there money in the fund, is Indonesian equipment in Egyptian hands, and is there a more honest position on Palestine? If so, this weekend mattered. If not, it was only ceremony.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.