Egypt’s Army Chief of Staff, Mohamed Hegazy met the Commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) General Joseph L Votel amid the ongoing ‘Bright Star 2018’ between the two countries, taking place at the Mohamed Naguib base and the Mediterranean Sea from 8 to 20 September.

The two senior military leaders discussed ways to enhance the strategic security relationship between Egypt and the US, a historic partnership, which plays a leading role in counter-terrorism and regional security, Daily News Egypt reported.

Hegazy asserted that Egypt’s military is keen on future collaboration between the two countries.

Egypt has enhanced its military relations with the US throughout the past years. On Monday, the U.S. State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military sale to Egypt of 46,000 M831A1 and M865 rounds, and 10,000 APFSDS-T rounds, for an estimated cost of $99 million.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale.

According to an earlier statement from military spokesperson Tamer El-Refaei, land, naval and air forces from Egypt, US, Greece, Jordan, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, and France are participating in “Bright Star 2018” military drills in addition to several countries, which were invited to monitor the drills, including Lebanon, Rwanda, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, South Africa, Senegal, and Canada.

The drills aim at exchanging experience and coordination between the forces participating in the exercises, standardizing concepts and improving skills of participants, as well as developing methods of operations and training on counterterrorism and non-traditional warfare.

The “Bright Star 2018” military drills come in the framework of joint military training between the Egyptian military forces and forces from other countries, in order to improve and boost Egypt’s relations with its neighboring and friendly countries amid the current difficult times in the Middle East region.

The exercises also include lectures, practical exercises as well as trainings on countering weapons of mass destruction, and terrorism.  

The focus in this year’s drills will be on regional security and cooperation, as well as promoting interoperability in irregular warfare scenarios.