Business Standard - India and Egypt have decided to strengthen defence industry co-operation and take bilateral trade to $12 billion next 5 years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday after bilateral talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. Currently, trade between the two countries is around $7.2 billion. Read more
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday on a three-day visit and will attend Republic Day celebrations as the chief guest. This is the first time that the President of Egypt has been invited as a chief guest. A military contingent from the Egyptian army will also participate in the parade.
India is keen to further expand ties with Egypt, a key player in the politics of both the Arab world as well as Africa. It is also seen as a major gateway to markets in Africa and Europe.
History of India-Egypt Relations - India and Egypt are two of the world's oldest civilization, which have enjoyed a history of close contact from ancient times. Ashoka edicts has a reference to his relations with Egypt under Ptolemy-II.
Moreover, President Nasser and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru shared a very close relationship leading to a Friendship Treaty in 1955.
India and Egypt share close political understanding based on long history of contacts and cooperation in bilateral, regional and global issues. The joint announcement of establishment of diplomatic relations at Ambassadorial level was made on August 18th, 1947, just 3 days after India's independence.
Both countries have cooperated closely in multilateral fora and were the founding members of Non-Aligned Movement.
During the second wave of COVID in India, Egypt dispatched three planes with medical supplies to India on May 9th, 2021.
India-Egypt bilateral trade relations - The India-Egypt Bilateral Trade Agreement has been in operation since March 1978 and is based on the Most Favoured Nation clause and the bilateral trade has increased more than 5 times in last 10 years. The bilateral trade in 2018-19 reached US$4.55 billion.
Despite pandemic, the volume of trade declined only marginally to US $4.5 billion in 2019-20 to us $4.15 billion 2020-21.
In FY 2021-22, the top Indian imports from Egypt were mineral oil/petroleum, fertilizers, inorganic chemicals and cotton. Main items of export to Egypt from India where buffalo meat, iron and steel, engineering products, light vehicles and cotton yarn.
Around 50 Indian firms have invested in various sectors in Egypt, with a combined investment exceeding US $3.15 billion.
In the field of scientific cooperation, ICAR and the Research Centre of Egypt are working in the field of agricultural research. 'Science and Technology' cooperation is implemented through biennial Executive Programmes and Scientific Cooperation Programme between CSIR (India) and NRC (Egypt).
Space cooperation is an emerging vertical of cooperation between India and Egypt. Joint Working Group meetings and discussions between ISRO and NARSS have been held since the an MoU was signed in 2008. With Egypt having established EgSA (Egyptian Space Agency) in 2019, both sides have agreed on drafting a new MoU to include EgSA and cover other developments in the sector and is in process.
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