India and Egypt: Deepening Bilateral Ties

India and Egypt: Deepening Bilateral Ties

Question: On a recent visit to Egypt, MEA Minister Sushma Swaraj has helped ties between this nation and India to progress to a new level. Highlight the changes in bilateral ties between the two nations, following the visit.

India and Egypt signed two MoUs for enhancing bilateral cooperation during the visit of the Indian MEA Minister there recently

MoU on Cooperation in Tourism

This MoU focuses on bilateral cooperation in the following fields:

- Tourism

- Hospitality

- Human Resource Development

- The MoU also draws up a road map for enhancement of cooperation

- Apart from this, a Joint Working Group on tourism cooperation is also the focus of this MoU

MoU on Cooperation in Science and Technology

- This MoU was signed between CSIR and National Research Centre (Egypt)

- MoU promotes and extends cooperation in the field of scientific research and technology development to further mutual interests

- The two nations will also cooperate on common intellectual property rights

A working program has been developed to review the implementation of this MoU involving the following:

- Joint Committee

- Exchange of scientists, information and scholars

Joint Research Programmes in the following areas:

- Water desalination

- Solar Energy

- Medicine

- Affordable healthcare

- Establishment of Joint Labs

Bilateral Cooperation in Security, Counter-Terrorism, Defence and Investments

- Both sides agreed to step up engagement in potential areas while combating the threat of IS

- Defence Cooperation was diversified from training of personnel to defence production

Three pillars of cooperation namely :

- Political and security

- Economic and investments

- P2P contact

Facts and Stats

- Egypt is one of India’s most important trading partners in Africa

- Trade between India and Egypt in the past financial year has been recorded at USD 4.76 billion

- India is the sixth largest trading partner of Egypt which is its second largest export destination

- India’s imports from Egypt are pegged at USD 1.74 billion in 2014-2015

- Indian businessmen have invested USD 3 billion in 50 Egyptian companies and provided employment to 35,000 Egyptians