The past 47 years since the establishment of Sino-Egyptian diplomatic relations in 1956 have seen sustained development in bilateral military relations between China and Egypt. Thanks to the efforts by both sides, the two Armed Forces have developed a sincere friendship and built up effective channels based on mutual trust for military cooperation and exchanges in various fields.Since 1999, when President Jiang Zemin and President Mubarak established the strategic and cooperative relationship between the two countries, the Sino-Egyptian relations have entered into a new era of rapid and robust development, which provides a sound environment and more opportunities for further development of the bilateral military relationship and constructive progress has been made.

The exchange of high-level visits is on a steady increase. In September 1983, Field Marshal Abel Gezal, Minister of Defense of Egypt paid an official visit to China. And his successor, Field Marshal Tantawy, also visited China in 1994. During the 1990's, several high-ranking officers of the Chinese People's Liberation Army have visited Egypt, including General Fu Quanyou, Chief of Staff of the PLA, in 1995 and General Chi Haotian, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and Minister of Defense of China, in 1996. In Aug. 2001, the PLA Friendly Visiting Delegation made a fruitful visit to Egypt. Most recently, H.E. Mr. Liu Jibin, Minister of Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense of the People's Republic of China, paid an official visit to Egypt in July 2001.

As a major component of the bilateral military relations, the military technology cooperation between the two Armies has made substantial achievements in recent years. In 1999, China and Egypt reached a landmark agreement to jointly manufacture the K-8E Light training planes, which has greatly promoted the development of technology sharing and military production between China and Egypt.

In 2002, the bilateral military relations was further developed. In May, the PLA Delegation headed by Deputy Chief of Staff H.E. Mr. Wu Quanxu visited Egypt. In June, the Chinese Naval Fleet led by Commander of the North China Sea Fleet H.E. General Ding Yiping made a 5-day port call at Alexandria, a port city of Egypt and a delegation of Military Academy of China led by the Principal H.E. Mr. Ge Zhenfeng visited Egypt.