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Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Cairo built on the visit by the Egyptian leader Abdel Fattah El-Sisi earlier this year when he was chief guest at the Republic Day parade in this country. At the time, the two sides had agreed to elevate the bilateral relationship to a “strategic partnership”. An agreement to this effect was signed during PM Modi’s visit. President El Sisi conveyed the importance of the partnership with an “India unit” in his government comprising seven cabinet ministers working with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly. He also conferred PM Modi with the Order of the Nile, Egypt’s highest honour.
The India-Egypt relationship has a rich and layered back story. Over the decades, several developments, including Egypt’s take-over of the Suez Canal in 1956, its defeat in the Arab-Israel war in 1967 and its recognition of Israel in 1977, have kept Egypt central to the geopolitics of West Asia. Delhi and Cairo have maintained good relations throughout. Last June, India shipped wheat to Egypt — it is the world’s largest importer of the grain — at a time of an acute flour shortage in the country on account of the disruption in supplies from Ukraine.
The new thrust to bilateral ties comes at a critical moment in India’s emergence as a key player in evolving geopolitical relations as a voice of the “Global South”, and as a rising economic power. But it must also be remembered that China has the most economic influence in Egypt right now, with presence across all sectors, from smart agriculture to infrastructure.
The India-Egypt strategic partnership is to be built on four pillars that have formed the core of the relationship — politics, defence and security; economic engagement; academic and scientific exchanges; cultural and people-to-people contacts. For India, the Suez Canal, which straddles the Gulf states and North Africa, offers a ready-made trade gateway to the region. Egypt is actively canvassing Indian industrial investment in the Suez Canal Economic Zone — a high-powered SCZONE team visited India on a promotional tour last week, offering Indian goods access to several countries in the region.
The Indian side is also hoping to push defence trade to boost its atmanirbhar defence production, pinning its hopes on Egyptian interest in the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, reportedly expressed when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited last September. The Cairo stopover on Modi’s return from Washington has sent out another important signal. Egypt, invited by Delhi as one of the nine guest countries in the G20 this year, stayed away from the grouping’s tourism officials’ meet in Srinagar. Now, the renewal of bilateral ties smooths over any awkwardness that may have persisted in the long-term engagement from Egypt’s May decision.
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