By India Blooms News Service Jan 25, 2023
New Delhi: India and Egypt have decided to strengthen plans to boost cooperation in defence and security, counter-terrorism and trade at a time when countrys President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is visiting the South Asian nation as a chief guest for the Republic Day event.
Indian PM Narendra Modi said: We have decided that under the India-Egypt Strategic Partnership, we will develop a long-term framework of greater cooperation in political, security, economic and scientific fields.
India and Egypt are worried about the spread of terrorism happening around the world. We are unanimous in the opinion that terrorism is the most serious security threat to humanity. Both countries also agree that concerted action is necessary to end cross-border terrorism. And for this, together we will continue to try to alert the international community, he said.
There is also immense potential for enhancing security and defence cooperation between us. In the last few years, there has been a significant increase in joint exercise training and capacity building between our armies. We have also decided in todays meeting to further strengthen cooperation between our defence industries, and enhance the exchange of information and intelligence related to counter-terrorism, Modi said.
He said: Misuse of cyber space to spread extremist ideologies and radicalization is a growing menace. We will extend cooperation against this also.
Modi said he discussed with the Egyptian leader the issue to strengthen the food and pharma supply chains affected by the COVID and the Ukraine conflict.
We also agreed on the need to increase mutual investment and trade in these areas. Together we have decided that in the next five years we will take our bilateral trade to 12 billion dollars, Modi said.
We commend Egypt for successfully hosting COP-27, and for its efforts to ensure the interests of developing countries in the climate sector, he said.
India and Egypt have had long and excellent cooperation in the United Nations and other international forums. We both agree on the need for diplomacy and dialogue to resolve international disputes, he said.