When the Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Cairo, he was greeted by children wearing T-shirts emblazoned with his face. Performers staged a traditional dance. The president of Egypt himself came to the airport to receive him.

For China, the welcome on Tuesday evening was a way to show that its influence has grown in Egypt, a traditional U.S. security partner. Mr. Xi hailed China and Egypt as “close brothers” bonded by a shared history of fighting imperialism — as he sought to present Beijing as a different kind of global power from the West.

He arrived as fighting between Iran and the United States flared once again — the latest conflagration of a war most countries in the region, from Egypt to Gulf nations, had sought to push President Trump to avoid starting earlier this year.

Egypt receives over $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid each year, but has also been drawing closer to China as the two countries expand their relationship beyond trade to include technology and military cooperation.

Mr. Xi, who is making a three-day visit, sat down for talks with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt on Wednesday, as the war with Iran has unsettled the region, disrupted energy markets and raised questions about Washington’s role in the Middle East. Chinese state media aired footage of the welcome ceremony featuring an honor guard and gun salute.

At a time when U.S. allies are questioning Washington’s reliability as a partner, it makes sense that countries like Egypt would want to strengthen ties with China, argued Ding Long, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of Shanghai International Studies University.

“You can’t put all your eggs in one basket and rely solely on the U.S. You need to diversify. Within this diversification, China is a very important partner,” he said.

Mr. Xi’s visit to Egypt, which comes before an expected meeting with Mr. Trump later this month, is also about showing that his country has friends and influence even within the United States’ own sphere of influence.

Earlier this week, he attended a security summit in Kyrgyzstan along with the leaders of Russia and Iran.

Mr. Xi is in Egypt to mark 70 years since the two countries established diplomatic relations. China, Egypt’s largest trading partner, has been expanding its investments in the country. Chinese automakers have signed agreements to assemble cars locally and Chinese firms have helped build some of Cairo’s key infrastructure, like a new administrative capital and a light rail line.

Trade between the countries has grown by 60 percent over the past decade to over $20 billion last year, compared to about $13 billion in 2015. Chinese companies have invested heavily in Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone. Last year, China pledged $1.15 billion in new industrial projects.

That cooperation has expanded into more sensitive areas. Last month, the two countries held joint military exercises in which China sent its J-16 fighter jets for a combat exercise against Egypt’s French-made Rafales, giving Beijing an opportunity to more closely examine Western equipment that is used by other militaries.

“Cooperation between the two sides is deepening and expanding and including new areas, like military and security issues,” said Mr. Ding, who noted that the two countries are also collaborating on space-related projects, including satellites.

There is still little sign, though, that either country is looking to Beijing to play more than a supplementary role in Egypt’s military architecture.

For Mr. Xi, visiting Egypt, the most populous Arab nation, is also a way to try to shape opinions about China throughout the Arab world. Because Egypt is not involved in the Iran war or too closely aligned with the United States, it “affords him the opportunity to be in the region, yet still control the optics and the message,” according to Eric Olander, editor in chief of The China-Global South Project, a research agency.

“Egypt is also a safe space for Xi, given that el-Sisi, like his predecessors, has traditionally had a fraught relationship with the U.S., so he’s guaranteed a warm reception with no risk of street protests or other unpleasantries that he would face elsewhere,” Mr. Olander said.

Egypt has been fostering closer ties with China for over a decade, since Mr. el-Sisi traveled to Beijing in 2014. Egypt is one of many countries, particularly in the Gulf, that have sought over the past decade to diversify its relationships, said Hisham A. Hellyer, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

“It’s not about replacing the U.S. role,” he said. “I don’t think any country in the region that have established strong ties with the United States want to give them up.” But those countries are keenly aware that, despite the war with Iran, Washington has sought for years sought to disentangle itself from the region.

The impetus to push this rebalancing has only grown, Mr. Hellyer said, especially since Israel’s war in Gaza and the war in the Gulf, “which Egypt did not want, and which the Gulf did not want, but the U.S. decided to go ahead with anyway.”

Mr. Xi, who likes to draw connections between China’s ancient civilization and those of other countries, is also expected to visit the Grand Egyptian Museum near the pyramids of Giza. Such language is part of Beijing’s argument that countries should be free to follow their own unique paths without pressure from Western democracies to conform to things like universal human rights.

In a prepared statement released on his arrival, Mr. Xi said that China and Egypt, as two great civilizations, “need to take pride in who we are.” He said that both countries “firmly support each other in pursuing development paths suited to our respective national conditions, and firmly support each other on core interests and major concerns.”

Pei-Lin Wu contributed reporting.