PM Modi's first state visit to Egypt 'set to provide further impetus to bilateral strategic ties'

India’s Ambassador to Egypt Ajit Gupte said India’s multi-faceted relations with Egypt, which was elevated to a ‘Strategic Partnership’ this year, will receive further impetus with the first state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the key Middle East nation.

Prime Minister Modi will be arriving in Egypt on Saturday evening at the invitation of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. It will be the first bilateral visit by an Indian prime minister since 1997.

“We are very much looking forward to the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Cairo from 24th to 25th of June. The visit is a very historic occasion because the last bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister was as far back as 1997,” Ajit Gupte told PTI.

Modi will hold talks with El-Sisi on Sunday to discuss ways to give further impetus to the strategic partnership between the two major nations. “I am excited to pay a state visit to a close and friendly country for the first time,” Modi said in his departure statement in New Delhi on Tuesday before leaving for the United States on his maiden state visit.

“We had the pleasure of receiving President Sisi as the Chief Guest at our Republic Day celebrations this year,” he noted.

These two visits in the span of a few months are “a reflection of our rapidly evolving partnership” with Egypt, which was elevated to a ‘Strategic Partnership’ during President Sisi’s visit, Modi said.

“I look forward to my discussions with President Sisi and senior members of the Egyptian Government to impart further momentum to our civilisational and multi-faceted partnership,” he said.

Ambassador Gupte said that Egypt and India have had close defence ties. “They have been participating for many years in joint exercises, training programmes, etc. But in the last two years, our defence cooperation has grown from strength to strength, and I’m happy to convey that 30 Indian defence delegations have visited Egypt in the last two years while from Egypt about seven defence delegations have gone to India,” he said.

For the first time ever, there were joint exercises between the fighter aircraft of the air forces of India and Egypt.

“From Egypt, we were very happy to have received an Egyptian military Convention, which led the Republic Day Parade this year… We also had for the first time ever, joint exercises between our Special Forces in the desert in Rajasthan,” he said.

On the strategic partnership between the two countries, Gupte said, “There is a great friendship between the people of both countries, but there was no special status to the relationship. So in the last few years, keeping in mind the rapidly growing trade, defence, and economic cooperation.”

“Naturally, the term strategic partnership is only used in a very limited and restricted manner to signify countries with whom that country wants to have very special relations,” he added.

(With inputs from PTI)

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