CAIRO, Jan. 21 -- Visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed here Thursday that his country and Egypt work together to build the Arab nation into a pivot of the Belt and Road.

During talks with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, Xi suggested that China and Egypt conjoin their development strategies and visions.

He suggested that the two countries focus on cooperation on infrastructure construction and production capacity and turn Egypt into a hub under the Belt and Road Initiative, a vision Xi put forward in 2013 with the aim of promoting common development along the ancient land and maritime Silk Roads.

For his part, al-Sisi said Egypt is willing to connect its own development plans with the Belt and Road Initiative and expand infrastructure cooperation with China under the framework of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Following their talks, the two presidents witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on jointly implementing the Belt and Road Initiative.