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News Analysis: New naval base reveals turn of tide in Egyptian military strategy: experts

2021-07-12 15:11:20

CAIRO, July 11 (Xinhua) -- In a grand opening ceremony held on July 3, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated the 3rd of July Naval Base on the country's northwest coast along the Mediterranean. It is considered the largest naval base in the most populous Arab country.

The new naval base, in addition to a string of military strongholds established in recent years, reveals a turn of the tide in the country's military strategy in recent years, military and political experts said.

Experts observed that the Egyptian military has strengthened its prowess by diversifying its weapon sources, establishing new military bases and naval fleets since Sisi took office in 2014.

"The Egyptian military strategy has changed during the era of President Sisi," Samir Farag, a retired major general who is the former director of the Egyptian Defense Ministry's Moral Affairs Department, told Xinhua.

"The army is focusing on forming a large military force to deter those who might threaten the Egyptian national security," Farag said.

"The establishment of military bases that cover various strategic directions are among the important strategies the Egyptian army has recently adopted," he added.

"The Egyptian military strategy is indeed defensive, but if national security is threatened, the strategy turns into an offensive one," the Egyptian military expert noted.

Farag also pointed out that the Egyptian military now holds weight in the Middle East thanks to the great leaps in armament, especially after Egypt obtained the French Rafale fighters, the Russian MIG-29 fighters, and the French Mistral-class amphibious assault ships.

"Egypt also developed its military production factories and started to make and develop new weapons, vehicles and technologies," he said.

Meanwhile, Tarek Fahmy, professor of political science at Cairo University, said the Egyptian military strategy is based on "preemptive deterrence" to defend the interests of the state.

"The doctrine is still defensive and not offensive, but it has become proactive, not reactive," he noted.

"I believe that the situation is now totally different from the past decades. The military strategy during Sisi's rule aims at the modernization of the army, and we have seen a notable and unprecedented change in the army's performance and armament," Fahmy told Xinhua.

Samir Ragheb, head of the Arab Foundation for Development and Strategic Studies, echoed Fahmy's view that the Egyptian military has remarkably developed under Sisi.

"The threats facing Egypt are different from those during the rule of previous presidents," Ragheb said, pointing out that the rise of extremist groups such as the Islamic State (IS) poses new threats to the national security of Egypt.

While the Egyptian military doctrine remains defensive on the whole, it can become offensive, especially when facing terrorist threats, the brigadier general said, referring to the military operation carried out by the Egyptian air forces against IS camps in Libya in February 2015. Enditem

Editor:Jiang Yiwei