Modi's visit to Egypt will give 'fresh impetus' to bilateral ties

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s two-day visit to Egypt will give a “fresh impetus” to the historic and strategic ties between the two nations, experts say.

Mr Modi will be flying to Cairo on Saturday after a four-day state visit to the US, with plans to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fatteh El Sisi, a select group of high-level ministers and members of the Indian diaspora.

On a more cultural note, he is also expected to visit the refurbished 11th-century Al Hakim Mosque.

Mr Modi’s visit to the North African country will be his first ever, as well as the first official visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Egypt since 1997.

“This is a fresh impetus. Nearly every prime minister from Egypt, the presidents, including the short-lived Morsi, have visited India,” Anil Trigunayat, a former diplomat who served as ambassador to Libya and Jordan, told The National.

“Egypt considers India as a geostrategic partner, but we have to move more into geo-economics", Mr Trigunayat said, adding that Egypt "is the biggest country in Africa in terms of population, and India is the biggest country here.

"We have to continue to engage with the countries in the region for our own good,” he said.

Mr Modi’s visit comes nearly six months after Mr El Sisi visited New Delhi as the chief guest at India’s 74th Republic Day celebrations this January.

India's Ministry of External Affairs has described the historic relationship between the two nations as “friendly” and marked by cultural and economic links and deep-rooted ties between peoples.

The bilateral relationship had strengthened in the first few decades after India’s independence in 1947.

Since forming a government in 2014, Mr Modi has emphasised a non-aligned foreign policy and focused on improving both bilateral and multilateral relations with global powers.

India has also invited Egypt, along with Oman and the UAE, to attend the G20 Summit in September as special guests.

New Delhi last year provided 61,500 tonnes of wheat to Egypt after an abrupt halt in wheat shipments from Ukraine resulting from the Russian invasion. It was India's largest consignment despite putting a ban on wheat exports.

Crucial partners

For India, Egypt is a crucial partner.

It is the largest country in the Arab world, a major economy and one of New Delhi’s major trading partners in the Mena region.

Bilateral trade between New Delhi and Cairo was recorded at $7.26 billion in the last fiscal year, a 60 per cent increase over 2020-21.

There are plans to increase bilateral trade to $12 billion within the next five years by diversifying the trade basket and focusing on value addition.

Egypt is also developing the Suez Canal Economic Zone, a 460-kilometre independent, emerging international commercial hub with six maritime ports strategically located between Africa, Middle East and Europe, as part of its national economic growth and employment engines as its economy is struggling.

China has already taken advantage of the opportunities the project offers, investing over $1 billion.

It sees the canal as a crucial part of its Belt and Road Initiative, an economic corridor that connects Central Asia and Maritime Silk Road projects in Indo-Pacific sea routes through Southeast Asia to South Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

“India is gradually becoming a major power as far as the Indian Ocean is concerned, as the Indo-Pacific is there. India’s focus is both on West Asia and Africa, and in that context Egypt, which has a dual hat, is important as an Arab country as well as an African country,” Mr Trigunayat said.

“Egypt has this unique strategic geography of being at the Red Sea, the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal, which are very important, and therefore becomes an integral part of both India's Indo-Pacific strategies as well as with Africa.”

New Delhi and Cairo also have robust military co-operation.

In January the Indian and Egyptian armies held a joint exercise in India’s Jaisalmer to bolster defence co-operation and share professional skills in desert terrain, counter-terrorism, reconnaissance and other special operations.

New Delhi has been steadily focusing on increasing its capabilities to design, develop and manufacture advanced technologies and systems in the defence sector under its ambitious Make-In-India initiative.