Finance
INDIA AND EGYPT signed a strategic partnership agreement on Sunday during one-on-one meetings in Cairo between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
The strategic partnership agreement is a result of a decision reached after the two presidents met in January of this year, when El-Sisi visited India as the Chief Guest for the Republic Day celebrations. They had chosen to elevate the bilateral relationship between India and Egypt to “strategic partnership” at the time.
The Prime Minister’s visit is significant because it comes just weeks after Egypt snubbed the G20 working group conference in Srinagar in early June.
Political, defense, and security engagement; economic engagement; scientific and academic collaboration; and cultural and people-to-people connections will be the main components of the strategic alliance.
The Egyptian President also bestowed the Order of the Nile on Prime Minister Modi, Egypt’s highest civilian honor. Among those who have received the award include South African leader Nelson Mandela, US President Jimmy Carter, and Queen Elizabeth II.
“It is with great humility that I accept the ‘Order of the Nile.’ I thank the Government and people of Egypt for this honour. It indicates the warmth and affection they have towards India and the people of our nation,” the Prime Minister said in a Twitter post.
This is the 13th highest state honour conferred upon Prime Minister Modi in the past nine years.
The two sides also agreed on three treaties: one on agriculture, one on the preservation of monuments and archaeological sites, and one on competition law.
Following the bilateral talks, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra stated that the two leaders focused on expanding political and security cooperation, defense coordination, commercial and investment linkages, and scientific and intellectual collaboration.
“The two leaders had a private one-on-one conversation during which, following up on the India visit of President El-Sisi earlier this year, the two leaders discussed a whole range of bilateral cooperation and also took stock of what is happening on important issues of the region and the world,” Kwatra said.
“It was clear from those discussions and the MoU and agreements signed later on that the two leaders gave a particular focus on enhancing the political and security cooperation, defence collaboration, trade and investment ties, scientific and academic collaboration and strengthening of people-to-people ties,” he said.
The two leaders also discussed how to strengthen the two countries’ strategic cooperation, with an emphasis on improving trade and investment, energy ties, and people-to-people connections.
El-Sisi greeted Modi, who was in Egypt for a two-day state visit, at the Presidential Palace, where the two leaders spoke privately.
The Prime Minister visited the Great Pyramids of Giza on the outskirts of Cairo on Sunday. He paid tribute to almost 4,300 Indian soldiers who perished in Egypt and Aden during World War I at the Heliopolis Commonwealth War Grave Cemetery in Cairo.
He also went to the Al-Hakim Mosque, where he was greeted by Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Minister, Mostafa Waziri. The Prime Minister met with representatives of the Bohra community, who are actively involved in the care of this Fatimid-era Shi’a mosque, and emphasized India-Egypt’s strong people-to-people relations.
On Saturday, Modi arrived in Cairo from the United States and met with Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly’s India Unit, a group of high-level officials formed by El-Sisi to boost bilateral relations between the two nations.
The Prime Minister returned to India on Sunday afternoon, capping off a five-day tour to the United States and Egypt.
Source:IE
