New Delhi – On his way back from a trip to the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is anticipated to stop in Egypt, where he would advance cooperation in areas like security and renewable energy, according to sources with knowledge of the situation on Wednesday.
The scheduled trip is anticipated to continue the momentum started by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s January visit to India, when he served as the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations.
The two parties are finalising the visit’s dates and agenda, and it will likely be brief. After his state visit to the US on June 24, the prime minister is scheduled to depart for Egypt, according to the sources.
Though the two nations have had close ties in the past, particularly as founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1961, Sisi was the first Egyptian leader to be invited by India for the Republic Day celebrations.
Since Sisi visited India three times in the past two years—once in September 2016 for his first state visit and once more in January of this year—for the third India-Africa Forum Summit, a high-level visit from the Indian side has been long overdue.
The Covid-19 pandemic caused the prime minister’s 2020 trip to Egypt to be postponed. One of those individuals listed above stated that “the upcoming visit will be an opportunity to maintain the momentum created by Sisi’s visit this year and to take stock of progress in relations since then.”
Defence and security cooperation as well as cooperation in renewable energy, particularly green hydrogen, have emerged as important foundations in bilateral relations. The two sides agreed to increase joint drills when they signed a memorandum of understanding last year to improve defence cooperation. Egypt wants to buy 70 fighter jets, and is considering buying the domestic Tejas light combat aircraft from India.
In order to manufacture green hydrogen, the Egyptian side has reached three agreements with Indian businesses, totaling more than $21 billion in anticipated investments.
The Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam, visited India in May and met with a number of religious leaders as part of initiatives to promote interfaith communication and combat problems like radicalization and extremism.
