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India wakes up to new Egypt, to invite
Morsi
Sunday September 23, 2012 05:38:34 PM,
Manish Chand,
IANS
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New Delhi: India is
planning to invite Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and step up
business ties with one of the Arab world's major powers, with
which it has had long-standing ties, when a high-profile Indian
business delegation heads to post-Mubarak Egypt next month.
More than a year after the so-called Arab Spring, India is also
looking to explore new opportunities in post-Gaddafi Libya which
is in the process of renovating its society and polity after a
messy war last year.
With Egypt trying to reclaim its pre-eminent position in the Arab
world, India signalled its desire to build bridges with the Muslim
Brotherhood dispensation in Cairo when Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh met Morsi briefly on the sidelines of the NAM summit in
Tehran Aug 30.
Official sources told IANS that Manmohan Singh conveyed India's
desire to build further the strong foundations of bilateral ties
and explore new areas of cooperation.
The Manmohan-Morsi meeting took place barely days after the
Egyptian president made his first overseas visit outside the
Middle East to China. Beijing pledged a new $200 million credit
and declared its resolve to tighten strategic partnership with
Cairo.
India has taken note of the new regime's focus on Beijing as Morsi
asserts himself to distinguish from Hosni Mubarak's pro-US tilt to
craft a new Look East foreign policy which will focus on emerging
Asian powers like India and China.
Against this backdrop, India is planning to invite the Egyptian
president to India. Dates will be worked out soon, said the
sources.
"As Egypt completes its transition towards democracy, we expect a
substantial growth in our bilateral engagement," India's
Ambassador to Egypt Navdeep Suri told IANS from Cairo.
"Leading figures in the new government have given clear
indications of their desire to deepen Egypt's economic engagement,
with India as part of their own Look East policy. We are
pro-actively engaged with all key actors in government, trade and
industry to facilitate this process," he said.
India's globally ambitious corporate sector has also smelt the
coffee and is determined not to miss out on fresh opportunities
emerging in Egypt, whose strategic location makes it a bridge
between Africa, Asia and Europe.
An industry source told IANS that a high-profile delegation of
CEOs of Indian companies, led by Atul Punj, will head to Egypt and
Libya Oct 26 to discuss project proposals with their counterparts
there.
The delegation will also comprise senior executives of corporate
giants like the Essar Group, Sanmar Group and Apollo Group.
They are also expected to meet key ministers in Morsi's cabinet
who are handling finance, petroleum and infrastructure portfolios.
Around 45 Indian companies have already invested over $2.5 billion
in projects in Egypt. In fact, Indian companies have shown their
confidence in the country's long term potential by staying put
right through the post-revolution period.
"Fresh Indian projects have been launched since the Jan 25
revolution in sectors like petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals,
readymade garments and education. I expect these trends to
strengthen with the return of political and economic stability,"
said Suri.
In a sign of the continuing resilience of India-Egypt economic
ties, two-way trade last year grew by about 45 percent. India's
exports grew by 35 percent despite the global economic downturn
and the fluid situation in Egypt itself.
With Egypt speeding up its democratic transition, new areas of
collaborations are emerging in areas of electoral technology and
institution-building.
India and Egypt signed a pact to establish an institutional
framework for their cooperation in the field of election
management during the recent visit of Justice Hatem Bagato,
secretary general of the Supreme Presidential Election Committee
of Egypt.
(Manish Chand
can be contacted at manish.c@ians.in)
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