Egypt's Morsi to visit Germany and France

President Mohamed Morsi will pay a two-day visit to Germany and France, where he will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel and German President Joachim Gauck, as well as French President Francois Hollande. The Egyptian Business Development Association (EBDA), created by a number of Muslim Brotherhood businessmen after the revolution, said a delegation of 100 businessmen travelled on Tuesday to Germany to attend the Egyptian German Economic Forum. The same delegation will later attend the Egyptian French Economic Forum.

According to media reports, Mohamed Barakat, chairman of Banque Misr, also flew to Germany on Tuesday to attend the forum. On Friday, the second anniversary of the Egyptian revolution, the presidency announced that President Morsi would not cancel a visit to Ethiopia to attend the African Union summit in Addis Ababa; it later cancelled the trip as the violent clashes continued. Morsi declared on Sunday a 30-day state of emergency and curfew in the Suez Canal cities of Port Said, Suez and Ismailia, which have witnessed some of the most deadly clashes. The three cities witnessed mass demonstrations in defiance of the regional curfew.