 By the end of 2014, the volume of trade between the two countries reportedly reached $6 billion.In April 2016, diplomatic relations between the two countries were seriously strained when an Italian PhD student from the University of Cambridge was found brutally murdered in Cairo after he went missing in January of the same year.Subsequently, Italy withdrew its ambassador to Egypt for consultations in Rome regarding the criminal death of Giulio Regeni, who, at the time, conducted critical academic research on Egyptian labour rights and trade unions.