India, Egypt discuss deepening cooperation on trade, investment and renewable energy

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Advancing India and Egypt’s relationship, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Egyptian counterpart Mostafa Madbouly discussed deepening cooperation across various areas including trade and investment, and renewable energy.

Earlier, on Saturday, PM Modi met the Egyptian PM and held a roundtable meeting where seven cabinet ministers and senior officials were present in the meeting.

Taking to Twitter, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “Advancing India-Egypt civilisational relations! In his first engagement in Cairo, PM @narendramodi held a meeting with the newly setup India Unit in the Egyptian Cabinet @CabinetEgy, headed by PM Mostafa Madbouly. Seven Cabinet Ministers and senior officials were present in the meeting.”

“Discussions focused on deepening cooperation across a range of areas including trade & investment, renewable energy, green hydrogen, IT, digital payment platforms, pharma and people to people ties. PM thanked Egypt for setting up this dedicated high level India Unit and appreciated the whole of government approach,” he said in another tweet.

On Sunday, Prime Minister will spend nearly half an hour at the Al-Hakim Mosque — a historic and prominent mosque in Cairo named after Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah (985-1021), the 16th Fatimid caliph. The mosque of al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah is an important cultural site for the Dawoodi Bohra community in Cairo.

PM Modi will also visit the Heliopolis War Grave cemetery to pay tribute to the Indian soldiers, who made the supreme sacrifice fighting for Egypt during the First World War.

The visit is of significance as Egypt has traditionally been one of India’s most important trading partners in the African continent. India-Egypt Bilateral Trade Agreement has been in operation since March 1978 and is based on the Most Favored Nation clause, according to the Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

India was Egypt’s fifth largest trading partner in the period April 2022-Dec 2022. It was the 11th-largest importer of Egyptian goods and the 5th-largest exporter to Egypt during the same time.

The two countries share a close political understanding based on a long history of contact and cooperation in bilateral, regional and global issues.

India and Egypt share close political understanding based on a long history of contact and cooperation in bilateral, regional and global issues. The joint announcement of the establishment of diplomatic relations at the Ambassadorial level was made on August 18, 1947.

Since the 1980s, there have been four Prime Ministerial visits from India to Egypt.

Rajiv Gandhi visited the country in 1985, PV Narasimha Rao in 1995, IK Gujral in 1997, and Manmohan Singh in 2009. From the Egyptian side, President Hosni Mubarak visited India in 1982, in 1983 (NAM Summit), and again in 2008.

High-level exchanges with Egypt continued after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution and then President Mohamed Morsi visited India in March 2013. External Affairs Minister (EAM) visited Cairo in March 2012 and the Egyptian Foreign Minister visited India in December 2013.

On April 14, 2022, Egyptian Cabinet announced the inclusion of India in the list of accredited countries which can supply wheat to Egypt, thus ending a long pending Non-Tariff Barrier.

India cleared a shipment of 61,500 metric tons of wheat to Egypt on May 17, 2022. (ANI)