Like old pals with a long history, Donald Trump and Abdel Fattah El Sisi have always got on famously when they met, exchanging lavish praise and waxing lyrical on each other's leadership.
The chemistry between the American President and his Egyptian peer was on display again last week when they met in Davos, on the sidelines of the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum.
"He is a strong leader. A great leader. And we are there for each other," Mr Trump said about Mr El Sisi.
After congratulating Mr Trump on his "achievements" in his first year in office, Mr El Sisi said the Gaza war would not have ended had it not been for the US President.
The Egyptian President's generous praise for Mr Trump came at a time when many western leaders gathered in Davos aired their frustration, sometimes fury, over what they see as America's empire-like projection of power and heavy-handed policies.
But that is not the case for many global leaders, including Mr El Sisi. He accepted Mr Trump's invitation to join the Board of Peace – the Trump-chaired body that will oversee Gaza's governance and aim to resolve other global conflicts – when Washington's traditional European allies declined, arguing that they would only join if changes were introduced in its charter.
But Mr El Sisi's flattery has a wider purpose. Egypt now needs the US, its top foreign supporter since the 1970s, more than ever before.
Mr Trump's apparent obsession with ending conflicts around the world is a boon to Egypt at a time when it is struggling to avoid the fallout from conflicts unfolding across its borders in Gaza, Sudan and Libya, threatening its own stability.
And perhaps more importantly, Cairo needs Washington's help to resolve what it says is an "existential" conflict with Ethiopia over its share of the Nile.
It is probably because of this that Egypt under Mr El Sisi has refrained from criticising the US. In most cases, Egypt's official channels have often cast the US President as a saviour or a man of steel.
Indeed, Egypt's approach to Washington is shaped foremost by its own national security concerns. The conflict in Gaza, for example, continues to be a serious concern to Egypt on account of persistent fears that appalling living conditions there after two years of relentless Israeli strikes could force many of the enclave's 2 million Palestinians to pour into its sparsely populated Sinai Peninsula.
If that happens, Egypt contends, it will hand Israel the opportunity to hold sway over the coastal enclave indefinitely, succumb to demands by extremist politicians that Jewish settlements be allowed to return to the enclave and, perhaps just as dangerous, partially shift the Palestine-Israel conflict on to Egyptian soil.
Fortunately for Egypt, Mr Trump appears to have abandoned, at least publicly, his earlier vision of resettling the Palestinians in Egypt and Jordan before turning their homeland into an upscale resort.
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt is expected to open next week. Yet a report by Reuters published last week said Israel wanted to restrict the number of Palestinians entering Gaza through the crossing to ensure that more are allowed out than in.
Furthermore, a presentation by Mr Trump's Middle East envoy and son-in-law Jared Kushner in Davos last week outlined a $30billion redevelopment plan of Gaza that in part recalled the resort scheme.
It also failed to mention what becomes of the Palestinians there when the reconstruction begins, a worrisome omission that may have been behind President El Sisi's warning on Saturday about forcibly moving the Palestinians out of Gaza.
"It could be a hope. It could be a destination, have a lot of industry and really be a place that the people there can thrive, have great employment," said Mr Kushner. "We think that this really gives the Gazan people an opportunity to live their aspirations."
Separately, Egypt also continues to fear the division of Gaza if Israeli troops are permanently posted on big chunks of its territory. These fears are not unfounded.
Satellite imagery and resident testimony have shown that Israel has moved the blocks marking its ceasefire line with Hamas deeper into a Gaza neighbourhood, destroyed dozens of buildings and displaced Palestinians, in violation of the US-backed truce.
In areas across Gaza, Israel appears to have placed the concrete blocks meant to demarcate its "Yellow Line" dozens or sometimes hundreds of metres inside Hamas-controlled territory, and its military has built up at least six fortifications to station troops.
It's because of these fears and Israel's actions in Gaza that Mr El Sisi implored the American leader during their meeting last Wednesday in Davos to ensure the full implementation of his 20-point Gaza peace plan, the first phase of which paused the fighting in October.
The remaining phases include further Israeli withdrawals, an international force to maintain security and for a nonpartisan Palestinian committee to replace Hamas as the strip's day-to-day governing body. They also provide for the disarming of Hamas, a thorny issue on which the militant group has yet to say whether it will comply.
"I ask of His Excellency the President that he continues to pay attention to that issue," the Egyptian leader said as he sat next to Mr Trump.
On the Nile dispute, which began when Ethiopia started more than a decade ago building a massive dam on the river, Mr Trump's first-term administration had mediated a deal, but Ethiopia baulked at its terms and refused to sign at the last minute. Last week, Mr Trump told Mr El Sisi in a letter that he was ready to be involved again in the search for a resolution.
Fortunately for Egypt, all signs thus far point to Mr Trump favouring Egypt's position on the matter. Responding to Mr El Sisi's comments that the issue is of existential proportions to his country, Mr Trump said the Ethiopian dam was basically blocking the Nile.
"When I think of Egypt, I think of the Nile, in all fairness," he mused.
"It has become a very dangerous issue," he said, having already suggested during his first term that Egypt could not be blamed had it bombed the dam.
"I will see if I can get the two of them together to see if we can make a deal," said the American leader, alluding to a possible meeting between Mr El Sisi and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
It's just one more item on the long list the Egyptians have for their friend in the White House.
