A woman looks at a new section of the Suez Canal during a media tour in Ismailia, Egypt, last week.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is to travel to Egypt on Thursday to attend the inauguration of the country’s New Suez Canal, his office said on Tuesday.

Tsipras is to meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi as well as French President Francois Hollande and Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on the sidelines of the event.

Part of a multi-billion-dollar project aimed at boosting trade along the quickest shipping route linking Europe to Asia, the new waterway is to run alongside the existing 145-year-old canal.