United States presidential visits to North Africa
The countries of North Africa and their capitals
Eight Presidents of the United States have made presidential visits to North Africa. The first trips by a sitting president to countries in North Africa were those of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and were an offshoot of Allied diplomatic interactions during World War II.
Table of visits
President |
Dates |
Country |
Locations |
Highlights |
Franklin D. Roosevelt |
01 !January 14-25, 1943 |
Morocco |
Casablanca |
Attended Casablanca Conference with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.[1] |
02 !November 20-21, 1943 |
French Algeria |
Oran |
Disembarked.[1] |
03 !November 21-22, 1943 |
Tunisia |
Tunis |
Overnight stop.[1] |
04 !November 22-26, 1943 |
Egypt |
Cairo |
Attended First Cairo Conference with British Prime Minister Churchill and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek.[1] |
05 !December 2-7, 1943 |
Cairo |
Attended Second Cairo Conference with British Prime Minister Churchill and Turkish President İsmet İnönü.[1] |
06 !December 7-9, 1943 |
Tunisia |
Tunis |
Conferred with General Dwight Eisenhower.[1] |
07 !February 13-15, 1945 |
Egypt |
Great Bitter Lake, Suez Canal, Alexandria |
Met with King Farouk, Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, Saudi Arabian King Ibn Saud, and British Prime Minister Churchill.[1] |
08 !February 18, 1945 |
French Algeria |
Algiers |
Briefed U.S. Ambassadors to the United Kingdom, France, and Italy on the Yalta Conference.[1] |
Dwight D. Eisenhower |
09 !December 17, 1959 |
Tunisia |
Tunis |
Met with President Habib Bourguiba.[2] |
10 !December 22, 1959 |
Morocco |
Casablanca |
Met with King Mohammed V.[2] |
Richard M. Nixon |
11 ! June 12-14, 1974 |
Egypt |
Cairo, Alexandria |
Met with President Anwar Sadat.[3] |
Jimmy Carter |
12 !January 4, 1978 |
Aswan |
Met with President Sadat and German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.[4] |
13 !March 7-10, 1979 |
Cairo, Alexandria, Giza |
State visit; met with President Sadat and addressed the People's Assembly.[4] |
14 !March 13, 1979 |
Cairo |
Met with President Sadat.[4] |
George H. W. Bush |
15 !November 22-23, 1990 |
Cairo |
Discussed the Persian Gulf crisis with President Hosni Mubarak.[5] |
Bill Clinton |
16 !October 25-26, 1994 |
Cairo |
Met with President Mubarak and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat.[6] |
17 !March 13, 1996 |
Sharm el-Sheikh |
Attended the Summit of the Peacemakers.[6] |
18 !July 25, 1999 |
Morocco |
Rabat |
Attended the funeral of King Hassan II; met with Palestinian National Authority President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.[6] |
19 !August 29, 2000 |
Egypt |
Cairo |
Briefed President Mubarak on the Middle East Peace Process.[6] |
20 !October 16-17, 2000 |
Sharm el-Sheikh |
Attended Israeli-Palestinian Summit Meeting.[6] |
George W. Bush |
21 !June 2-3, 2003 |
Sharm el-Sheikh |
Attended “Red Sea Summit” with the leaders of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, and with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.[7] |
22 ! January 16, 2008 |
Sharm el-Sheikh |
Met with President Mubarak.[7] |
23 !May 17-18, 2008 |
Sharm el-Sheikh |
Met with President Mubarak, King Abdullah II of Jordan, Palestinian National Authority President Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani. Addressed the World Economic Forum.[7] |
Barack Obama |
24 !June 4, 2009 |
Cairo |
Met with President Mubarak and delivered and address at Cairo University.[8] |
Visits by former presidents
- Ulysses S. Grant visited Alexandria, Egypt, met with Khedive Isma'il Pasha, sailed up the Nile to tour the Valley of the Kings, and travelled by train down the length of the Suez Canal in 1878, during a post-presidency world tour.[9][10]
- Richard Nixon (without official State Department credentials) attended the funeral of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, former Shah of Iran, in Cairo, March 8, 1980.[11]
- Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter were among the dignitaries representing the United States at the funeral of Egyptian President Sadat in Cairo, October 10, 1981.[12]
See also
References