{"id":23548,"date":"2023-06-24T20:10:48","date_gmt":"2023-06-24T14:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/?p=23548"},"modified":"2023-06-26T05:47:55","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T00:17:55","slug":"squaring-the-circle-at-the-india-egypt-summit","status":"publish","type":"editorial-analysis","link":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/editorial-analysis\/squaring-the-circle-at-the-india-egypt-summit","title":{"rendered":"Squaring the Circle at the India-Egypt Summit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indian Prime Minister after concluding his visit to the United States, now on his first trip to Egypt, the first official bilateral visit by an Indian PM since 1997.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Ties between India and Egypt:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Linkage: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India-Egypt ties are perhaps the <\/span><b>oldest civilisational link.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Proofs: Ashoka\u2019s edicts <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">refer to his relations with Egypt under Ptolemy II.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2750 BCE, the <\/span><b>Pharaoh Sahure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> sent ships to the<\/span><b> \u201cLand of Punt\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which historians identify with peninsular India.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By the middle of the second millennium BCE, <\/span><b>Egyptian mummies were wrapped in muslin dyed with indigo, both from India.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Common Goal: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In modern times, <\/span><b>Mahatma Gandhi and the Egyptian revolutionary Saad Zaghloul <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">shared a c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ommon goal on independence from British colonial rule.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both nations made a joint announcement of the establishment of <\/span><b>diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level three days after India\u2019s independence.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Treaties: A Friendship Treaty<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was signed between Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1955.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The two countries have<\/span><b> celebrated the 75th anniversary<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of establishing diplomatic ties.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Cooperative Area: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Presently, both share a<\/span><b> cooperation in culture, youth matters, cyber security, information and technology (IT) and public broadcasting.\u00a0<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both have commitment to<\/span><b> multilateralism, the principles of the United Nations Charter, international law, the founding values of the Non-Aligned Movement, and respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all states.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They initiated new engagements to intensify <\/span><b>military-to-military engagements <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and planned more joint exercises between the armed forces of the two countries.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They agreed to <\/span><b>fight terrorism in all forms<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and intensify consultation between their respective National Security Councils.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Significance of Egypt to India:<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<h5><b>Strategic Location: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Suez Canal is a major transportation link in marine trade, handling about <\/span><b>12% of all international trade<\/b><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<h5><b><\/b><b><\/b>It serves as a gateway to both Europe and Africa and hence, has greater market exploration and opportunities.<\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\n<h5><b>Energy Resources:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> India is a significant importer of crude oil and natural gas and Egypt\u00a0 can be a reliable partner in fulfilling India\u2019s energy needs.<\/span><\/h5>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Influence in the Arab World: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Arab League is headquartered in Cairo (the capital of Egypt).\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Arab League countries have their own strategic importance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Egypt has productive diplomatic ties with the West and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hence, with Egypt&#8217;s strong ties, it would be an advancement in the ties with the West, Arab World and the IOC.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Shared Concerns:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Both have a serious concern on the spread of violence, terrorism and extremist ideology.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Opportunities for India:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Similar Conditions:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Both have similar socio-economic conditions.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Market Access:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Egypt\u2019s largest imports are refined petroleum, wheat (world\u2019s largest importer), cars, corn and pharmaceuticals \u2014 all of which India has the potential to supply.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Egyptian government has an <\/span><b>ambitious infrastructure development agenda<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and is one of the world\u2019s largest arms importers, which presents opportunities for India.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Areas of Cooperation:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Trade &#038; Economy:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Egypt has traditionally been<\/span><b> one of India\u2019s most important trading partners in the African continent.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The India-Egypt Bilateral Trade Agreement has been in operation since March 1978 and is based on the <\/span><b>Most Favored Nation <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">clause.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Major<\/span><b> Egyptian exports to India <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">include raw cotton, raw and manufactured fertilizers, oil and oil products, organic and non-organic chemicals, and leather and iron products.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Major<\/span><b> imports into Egypt from India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are cotton yarn, sesame, coffee, herbs, tobacco and lentils.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Emergency: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine war, both showed remarkable strengthening ties.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Egypt sent medical supplies and doses of the <\/span><b>antiviral Remdesivir injection to India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and in exchange, India approved the <\/span><b>maiden shipment of wheat to Egypt in May 2022<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Tourism: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Egypt is keen to push for more tourism from India, and ease the movement of people so that there is more forex inflow into their tourism-dependent economy.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Education: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India is setting up higher educational institutions and campuses in Egypt- a proposal for establishing an IIT in Egypt.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b style=\"font-family: var(--list--font-family); background-color: var(--global--color-background); color: var(--global--color-primary); font-size: var(--global--font-size-base);\">Technology: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both have held workshops on Agriculture-Biotechnology and Nanotechnology.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>grants-in-aid projects <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">include Pan Africa Tele-medicine and Tele-education project at Alexandria University, the Solar electrification project in Agaween village, and Vocational Training Centre for textile technology in Shoubra, Cairo, which have been completed. An IT Centre at Al Azhar University, CEIT, is also operational from February 2019.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Space cooperation is an emerging vertical of cooperation between India and Egypt. Joint Working Group meetings and discussions between<\/span><b> ISRO and NARSS <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences) have been held.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Defense: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Egypt is interested in procuring defense equipment from India, which includes <\/span><b>LCA Tejas, missiles like Akash, DRDO\u2019s Smart Anti-Airfield Weapon, and radars.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the <\/span><b>first-ever joint exercise between the special forces of the Indian Army and the Egyptian<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Army named \u201c<\/span><b>Exercise Cyclone-I<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d was held in January 2023.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Challenges:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Lack of Efficacy: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The underperformance of bilateral ties is not due to a lack of bilateral institutional mechanisms, but their efficacy and sense of purpose.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>China\u2019s Closer Ties: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Egypt is being seen as <\/span><b>getting close to China<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Chinese investments are very huge and outnumber India\u2019s investments, which is a serious challenge from an Indian perspective.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Economic Crisis:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Egypt is in high<\/span><b> economic instability<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The Egyptian economy is in a serious crisis. The huge financial commitments have coincided with a static economy, pandemic, global slowdown and the Ukraine conflict.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Egypt\u2019s foreign debt is over $163 billion (43% of the GDP) and its net foreign assets are minus $24.1 billion.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The acute forex situation compelled the government to issue in January 2023 an order for the postponement of projects with a large foreign currency component and cuts to non-essential spending.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Way Forward:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Focus on Efficacy: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Need to be more cautious about bilateral ties, efficacies and sense of purpose.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Invest More:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Need to invest more to reduce the influence of China, not only to strengthen our footholds but to protect Egypt from dept trap diplomacy of China too.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Help Egypt to Come Out of Economic Crisis Situation: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India may countenance manageable eco-political risks to partake Egypt\u2019s lucrative opportunities through various innovations such as the <\/span><b>EXIM line of credit, barter, and rupee trading.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Conclusion:\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The forthcoming Cairo Summit is an opportunity for India to avoid the pitfalls. Indian summiteers in Cairo may need to carefully balance their exposure to Egypt with the opportunities on hand.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India may, instead, consider trilateral funding arrangements for such projects in Egypt or elsewhere with its partners in the Gulf, the G-20 or the multilateral financial institutions.<\/span><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Additional Information:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Transcontinental Countries:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Countries which are located on more than one continent.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also known as intercontinental states.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Few Examples:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Russia:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The largest country in the world spans Eastern Europe and Northern Asia.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Turkey: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most of its territory is located in Asia, but a small part lies in Southeastern Europe.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Egypt:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is primarily in Africa, but it&#8217;s Sinai Peninsula extends into Asia.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Kazakhstan: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Predominantly located in Central Asia, but a small portion of its territory extends west of the Ural River in Eastern Europe.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Azerbaijan: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. Some of its territory is in the South Caucasus region of Europe.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Georgia: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Located at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><b><i>News Source: <\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/opinion\/op-ed\/squaring-the-circle-at-the-india-egypt-summit\/article67002812.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b><i>The Hindu<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: Indian Prime Minister after concluding his visit to the United States, now on his first trip to Egypt, the first official bilateral visit by an Indian PM since 1997.\u00a0 Ties between India and Egypt: Linkage: India-Egypt ties are perhaps the oldest civilisational link. Proofs: Ashoka\u2019s edicts refer to his relations with Egypt under Ptolemy&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/editorial-analysis\/squaring-the-circle-at-the-india-egypt-summit\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Squaring the Circle at the India-Egypt Summit<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[1500],"paper-wise":[],"subject":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial-analysis\/23548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial-analysis"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/editorial-analysis"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/editorial-analysis\/23548\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23548"},{"taxonomy":"paper-wise","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/paper-wise?post=23548"},{"taxonomy":"subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pwonlyias.com\/stage\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/subject?post=23548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}