The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, held a joint press availability with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty on Sept. 18, 2024, in Cairo, Egypt to announce the new US-Egypt Strategic Dialogue program. This was Blinken’s 10th visit to the Middle East since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, but unlike other trips to the region, he did not make a stop in Israel. Instead, the main purpose of the visit was to strengthen the long-standing relationship between the US and Egypt.

The panel hosted by the Center for Strategic & International Studies discussed the statements made from the aforementioned military forum, as well as recent military developments in China’s People’s Liberation Army, otherwise known as the PLA, as per a recent report released by the United States Secretary of Defense.