Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi arrived in Moscow on Wednesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy for "2+2" talks with their Russian counterparts on Thursday to negotiate a $2-billion arms deal

Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi arrived in Moscow on Wednesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy for "2+2" talks with their Russian counterparts on Thursday to negotiate a $2-billion arms deal.

  

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrvov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu had made a landmark trip to Cairo in November aimed at reviving ties that had remained stagnant since Soviet times.

 

Diplomats in Moscow said Thursday's talks would focus on regional security issues such as the Syria crisis as well as trade and economic relations. But Moscow officials have confirmed that a large part of the discussions will focus on striking a massive new Russian arms delivery deal.

  

The head of Russia's state industrial holding company said after the Cairo meeting that Moscow was on the verge of reaching a landmark agreement to deliver air defense systems to Egypt's army.

 

The Soviet Union was the main supplier of arms to Egypt in the 1960s and early 1970s. Cooperation between the two sides dropped after the Zionist entity and Egypt signed a peace treaty and Cairo began receiving generous US aid.

  

But Washington suspended some of its military assistance to Egypt after the July ousting of democratically-elected Islamist president Mohamed Mursi. Analysts say that the Russian- Egyptian arms deal is meant to replace subsiding assistance from old ally Washington