The two-day visit of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Egypt will provide an opportunity to review bilateral relations between the two nations and will also promote various aspects of mutual interest, including fighting terrorism, India's Ambassador to Egypt has said.
"The visit of the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is the first to Egypt. She is coming for a standalone visit in view of the very close relations that we have had over a very long period of time and our desire and commitment is to take this relationship to a higher level to build a new partnership," Ambassador Sanjay Bhattacharyya told PTI in an interview.
Ambassador Bhattacharyya said the upcoming visit of the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Cairo will provide an opportunity to review the entire gamut of the bilateral and multilateral relations and to exchange views with the Egyptian leadership covering whole range of issues of mutual interest.
The External Affairs Minister will be on a two-day visit to Egypt from Monday which is expected to help bilateral ties gain traction.
During her visit, she will call on Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, hold bilateral talks with her counterpart Sameh Shoukry and meet Nabil ElAraby, the Secretary General of the league of Arab States, besides other leaders.
Bhattacharyya said both countries have very similar situations and are committing to sharing their experiences.
"India and Egypt are both developing countries. And just as we shared our experience in the past we will continue to do so," Bhattacharyya said.
"India and Egypt have traditionally enjoyed close and friendly relations since long ago. There are many aspects in which we can extend and promote our cooperation," he said.
"In the fields of politics and security we can combine our discussions and coordination to fight terrorism which is a challenge that we all face across the world. Terrorism is not something that is related to ideology or religion and it must be fought at all costs," Bhattacharyya said.
The Ambassador also added that there are many opportunities for India and Egypt particularly in the economic engagement.
"We believe that we already have a very strong economic engagement in terms of bilateral trade and investment. But we can actually reach a much greater potential. This will be our objective," he said.
India is the sixth largest trading partner of Egypt – the second largest export destination. Trade between India and Egypt during the last financial year (April 2014 - March 2015) has been recorded at USD 4.76 billion.
India's imports from Egypt were worth USD 1.74 billion during 2014-15. There has been diversification in the export basket of Egyptian products to India. Indian exports to Egypt during 2014-15 have been recorded at USD 3.02 billion.
"We believe that as Egypt expands its economy and increases its engagement in the region, Africa and Europe, India can be strong part in that," Bhattacharyya said.
In addition to politics and economy, there are certain specific areas that both countries would like to have closer cooperation in, including the fields of energy and medicine, he said.
"In energy, we believe that we have good renewable energy technology. Some of our companies are working here. Another area in which we begin to have close cooperation is in pharmaceuticals, "the Ambassador said.
"We believe that India can provide the world affordable and reliable medicines, which will be a benefit the problems of health that we have," he added.
"We also have a very strong base in small and medium enterprises. Our companies are very eager to come and work here," the Ambassador said.
"At the same time, there are ongoing projects that Indian started implementing in Egypt. At the moment we are working on a solar Energy projects. We are also working on a pan-African tele-medicine and tele-education projects in conjunction with the University of Alexandria," he added.
"We are going to establish a vocational training centre in Cairo for textiles. A very exciting project is that we are going to establish an IT Centre of Excellence at Al-Azhar University. There will be many other projects of course," the Ambassador said.
