Cash-strapped Cairo is shelling out millions of dollars to preserve a US-Egypt relationship worth $1.5 billion in annual aid and priceless standing on the world stage.

With Congress and the White House increasingly critical of the country’s trajectory, Egypt has signed a $3 million-a-year lobbying contract to convince lawmakers and the media that Egypt is on a path to democracy. At stake is the future of decades-long military ties along with the enhanced authority President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi would gain internationally if the US government embraced him wholeheartedly.

“President Sisi would like the international respect and legitimacy that would be conferred upon him by at least a correct relationship with the United States," said Michele Dunne, a senior associate and Egypt expert with the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "I'm sure he would like to be received in Washington as a legitimately elected president."

Among the top goals for the new government is the resumption of suspended weapons deliveries the government says it needs to battle Islamist militants in the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is also fighting back against growing bipartisan calls to cut bilateral foreign assistance that the Congressional Research Service (CRS) calculates at $74.65 billion since 1948.