India eyes economic, military ties with Egypt during El-Sisi's visit

The Egypt President being chief guest at the Republic Day parade portends a beneficial partnership

Egypt President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is going to be chief guest at India’s Republic Day parade. He will arrive on January 24 amid discussions about the feasibility of a revival of the New Delhi-Cairo axis, the consolidation of West Asia, and the creation of a third pole in international politics. Of course, diplomatic, economic, and military ties are expected to continue to grow.

Food security is of prime concern for both countries. When Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted in April last year that Egypt had agreed to buy wheat from India, it was not an insignificant geo-political move. Goyal said Egypt had allowed the imports following personal intervention from top officials and India wanted to become a regular supplier of good quality wheat to the African nation. While India’s share in Egypt’s wheat import is small (1 million tonnes of the 11-12 million tonnes Egypt imports) it has the potential of developing a new market for India.

But this is not the only aspect of the relationship between the two countries. Mohammed Soliman, director, Strategic Technologies and Cyber Security Programme at the Middle East Institute in Washington, told the local media: “Egypt and India have had historic defence ties since the 1950s/1960s, when the two countries developed and co-produced fighter jets, in addition to conducting joint military exercises and sharing intelligence. Recently, the two nations have been negotiating the sale of Indian Tejas light combat aircraft to Egypt, which could include production line and technology transfer.” He said: “While the sale might not come to fruition, I believe it could provide the two nations with the framework for future military co-production.”

Navdeep Suri, who has served in Cairo, said: “Defence cooperation is clearly one of the themes and high-level exchanges over the last two years led to Desert Warrior, the first ever joint tactical exercise by the air forces of the two countries... The more recent exercise between the special forces is another indication of the growing willingness to work together.”

This is for the first time that the President of the Arab Republic of Egypt has been invited as chief guest on Republic Day. A military contingent from the Egyptian Army will also participate in the Republic Day parade. However, this is not new. In the past, a contingent of the French military had taken part in the Republic Day parade when President Macron of France had been chief guest. However, even as a symbolic gesture, this does mean a close and trusted relationship between the militaries of the two nations.

India’s courting of Egypt began when New Delhi assumed the presidency of the G20. India noted Egypt’s help and support in managing the fall-out of the Nupur Sharma affair (the person made disparaging comments about Prophet Mohammed on TV) by countering hostile moves by Pakistan at forums like the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation  and by refraining from making any adverse comment. The two nations have had a traditionally strong relationship though through the presidency of Hosni Mobarak, the ties fell into disrepair. But Arab Spring claimed Mobarak and in the last nine years, Sisi has been to India twice, indicating Egypt is back on the radar.

This is evident in the investment made by India’s private sector. Suri said: “A number of Indian companies have invested in Egypt and by and large, they have done well. The largest of these is TCI Sanmar by the Chennai-based Sanmar Group.” The volume of bilateral trade grew by almost 75 per cent last year to touch $7 billion.

Egypt and India are new best friends. But the African country has other friends as well. Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Cairo in December last year. He announced China was “ready to deepen Belt and Road” cooperation, and ensure the timely completion of the train project in the 10th of Ramadan (city in Egypt) and the CBD project in the new administrative capital of Egypt. Xi also emphasised the importance of completing the China-Egypt Suez Economic and Trade Cooperation Zone and praised Egypt for its “leading role in safeguarding peace, security and stability in the region, particularly fighting terrorism and extremism”. Cairo said it endorsed the one-China principle and China’s position on Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Taiwan. Sisi said Egypt “firmly opposes interference by any force in China’s internal affairs”.

All this tells its own story as New Delhi awaits Sisi.