With Ceylon being held in high esteem by the Egyptian people owing to the stand of the country during the tripartite aggression against Egypt in 1956, which was before the establishment of diplomatic relations, Mrs Bandaranaike was accorded a warm welcome by President Gamel Abdel Nasser and Prime Minister Ali Sabry. Disarmament and tension in South Vietnam topped the agenda of her discussions which also resulted in the UAR agreeing to purchase a higher quota of tea from Ceylon. Egypt, which had been joined to Syria to form the United Arab Republic, had played a key role with Ceylon at the height of the Sino-Indian border dispute and exerted tremendous effort to avoid an outbreak of war. Travelling to Alexandria and Luxor, Mrs Bandaranaike witnessed the development activities undertaken and the work implemented to speed up the process of development.