"Russia's Ministry of Education and Egypt's Ministry of Education and Technical Education agreed to include the study of Russian as a second foreign language in schools and colleges in Egypt," said the Russian ministry.

The Egyptian Ministry of Education and Technical Education has not, however, announced the academic year in which the language will be offered to students.

The announcement was made during the 14th meeting of the Joint Russian-Egyptian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade-Economic, Industrial and Scientific and Technological Cooperation.

The decision to introduce Russian in Egypt's schools comes a few days after a similar decision to include French as a "compulsory" second language in Egyptian public schools for students in the first year of middle school and above by the 2024/2025 academic year.

Deputy Minister of Education and Technical Education Mohamed Megahed announced in September 2022 that 12 preparatory schools in three governorates will offer Chinese as an optional second language in the upcoming 2023/2024 academic year.