A White House official said on Sunday that President Donald Trump will host Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for talks in Washington on April 3, Reuters reports.
The visit will be at Trump's invitation, the official added, confirming a report in Egyptian media on Saturday that Sisi would make his first state visit to Washington during the first week of April.
The trip will be Sisi's first state visit to the United States since being elected president in 2014. Former President Barack Obama had never extended a formal invitation to Sisi.
Sisi had strained relations with the Obama administration. In 2013, shortly after Sisi and the Egyptian army ousted then-Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, Obama suspended American military aid to Egypt. He released the aid two years later.
American law forbids sending aid to countries where a democratic government was deposed by a military coup, though Washington has never qualified Morsi’s ouster as a "coup" and had been cautious about doing so, choosing only to condemn the violence in the country.
After Trump’s election, Sisi praised the new president and said he expected greater engagement in the Middle East from his administration.
The two leaders, in a January 23 phone call just days after Trump's inauguration, discussed ways to boost the fight against terrorism.