Egypt received a show of international support on Thursday as it inaugurated a major extension of the Suez Canal which President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi hopes will power an economic turnaround in the Arab world's most populous country.
Sisi told a ceremony attended by French, Russian, Arab and African leaders that Egypt would defeat the terrorism that dogged the project."Work did not take place in normal circumstances, and these circumstances still exist and we are fighting them and we will defeat them," Sisi said after signing an order allowing ships to cross the New Suez Canal.
"We promised a gift to the world and we accomplished it in record time - an additional artery for prosperity and for connecting civilization to enhance the movement of international trade," he said, as the first vessel, a container ship called CMA CGM TITAN, blew its horn and passed through the canal.
The $8 billion project was completed in just one year instead of three on Sisi's orders, but economists and shipping analysts question whether there is sufficient traffic and east-west trade to meet its ambitious revenue targets.
Earlier Sisi, in full military regalia, sailed up the canal, flanked by a young boy in military fatigues waving the Egyptian flag, aboard the yacht El-Mahrousa, the first ship to pass through the Suez Canal when it was opened in November 1869.
The government believes the New Suez Canal and an industrial zone to be developed around it will seal Egypt's deliverance from economic purgatory - to the skepticism of some.
The project involved extending a waterway parallel to part of the 19th century canal connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, as well as deepening and widening the old channel - the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.
Photo: Sisi accompanies boy with cancer in New Suez Canal cruising