Saudi Arabia King Salman has announced that a bridge linking the country with Egypt will be built over the Red Sea. The King said in a statement that the bridge would boost trade as the two countries signed 17 agreements to enhance bilateral ties. This announcement has been done during the second day of his 5-day visit to the Egyptian capital, Cairo. This visit is considered to be his first official visit to the Egypt since he came to the throne in 2015.

Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi Sisi said the bridge would be named after the Saudi king as “King Salman bin Abdel Aziz Bridge”, after the Saudi monarch. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries have supported Egypt with billions of dollars since President Sisi took power in 2013 following mass street protests.

“I agreed with my brother his Excellency President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to build a bridge connecting the two countries,” King Salman said. “This historic step to connect the two continents, Africa, and Asia, is a qualitative transformation that will increase trade between the two continents to unprecedented levels,” he said.

Saudi Arabia regards Egypt as a crucial partner in efforts to build a bloc of friendly Sunni Muslim states as a bulwark against growing regional influence of Shia-led Iran. King Salman’s visit comes amid recent strains in the relationship, with President Sisi taking a less hard-line stance against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Riyadh seeking more support from Cairo for its war against rebels in Yemen.

A Red Sea bridge linking the two countries has been proposed several times before but has failed to become a reality. Previous estimates for the bridge project suggested a cost of around $3-4bn (£2-3bn), but no further information has yet been released for the latest plan. The 17 agreement includes establishing King Salman Ibn Abdel Aziz University in Sinai, building residential buildings in Sinai, developing the Kasr el-Eini hospital in Cairo, and other agreements in different sectors.