Moscow and Cairo to build Egypt's first nuclear power plant

Memorandum of understanding was signed during Putin's visit to Egypt.

By REUTERS, JPOST.COM STAFF
President Sisi and President Putin in Cairo, February 9, 2015 (photo credit: REUTERS)
President Sisi and President Putin in Cairo, February 9, 2015
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Cairo and Moscow have agreed on plans to jointly build Egypt's first nuclear power plant, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced on Tuesday, AFP reported.  
A memorandum of understanding to build the facility was signed by Russian and Egyptian officials during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the country, Sisi said.
After talks with Sisi in Cairo on Tuesday, Putin also made statements to the press on the conflict in Syria which has raged for the past four years and has claimed more than 200,000 people.  
Putin said on he expected that there would be a new round of talks on the Syria conflict following from a meeting of some opposition figures and the Damascus government in Moscow last month.
"We look forward ... to the next round of such talks, which ultimately I hope will lead to a peaceful settlement of the situation in Syria."
The next meeting between some Syrian opposition figures and the Damascus government in Moscow are set to take place in about a month, a participant in the consultations in Russia had said on Jan. 30.
The Moscow talks, which ended on Jan. 29, were not seen as yielding a breakthrough as they were shunned by the key political opposition and did not involve the main insurgent groups fighting on the ground in Syria.
Moscow has been a long-standing ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose government has dubbed many of its opponents as terrorists.