Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has assured Italy s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte that the government is committed to finding the truth in order to bring to justice those responsible for the death of an Italian student in Cairo in 2016.
The two leaders met on Wednesday in New York on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly.
During the meeting, Sisi reiterated Cairo s commitment to "reach the truth" about Regeni s death, and said Egypt "shares Italy s interest in uncovering the circumstances of this crime and bringing the perpetrators to justice," said Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady in a statement.
Giulio Regeni was a postgraduate research student looking into Egyptian labour movements. He was found dead in February 2016. The 28-year-old had disappeared on 25 January 2016, and his body was found 10 days later on the outskirts of Cairo.
Egyptian investigators have said that Regini s body bore signs of torture. Egyptian officials have stated they had no involvement in Regeni s death.
Rady quoted Conte as saying that closing the case, by identifying those responsible and bringing them to justice, will help push the relationship between the two nation-states forward.
Egyptian and Italian investigators have been working together to recover surveillance footage from Cairo s underground metro system as part of the investigation.
In June, prosecutors from the two countries said that footage was recovered from CCTV recordings from the Cairo metro. It showed no "videos or images" of Regeni, and that there were a number "gaps" in the recovered footage. Both sides agreed that advanced technical tests ought to be carried out to determine why these gaps exist.
Last month, during a visit to Cairo, Italy s Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio said that Italy hopes investigations into the case will make a breakthrough by the end of the year.
During Wednesday s talks in New York, Sisi and Conte discussed Egyptian-Italian trade and economic ties and means of boosting Italian investments in Egypt.
Italy is a major trade partner for Egypt with 4.75 billion euros ($5.5 billion) in trade exchange per year; it is also the world s biggest importer from Egypt with imports worth $1.8 billion, according to Egypt s foreign ministry.
Italy s investments in Egypt are at an estimated 7 billion euros, making it the fifth biggest investor in Egypt. Italian company Eni is among one of Egypt s top foreign investors.
