Modi-Sisi Friendship Will ‘Go Beyond’ Nehru-Nasser, Egyptian Envoy Says

As President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi becomes the first leader of Egypt to visit India as the chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations, bilateral ties between Cairo and New Delhi will “surpass” the Nasser-Nehru era, Egyptian envoy Wael Mohamed Awad Hamed said on Monday.

“The relations between Prime Minister Nehru and President Nasser in the 50s and 60s did not give Egypt that chance to be the chief guest for the Republic Day. Now it is happening with Prime Minister Modi because of the personal connection and the understanding and the common agenda that Prime Modi shares with President Sisi,” Wael Mohamed Awad Hamed, Ambassador of Egypt to India, said Monday while addressing a panel discussion – ‘India-Egypt Ties in Changing Global Order’.

“I think what you are seeing now is something that goes even beyond the 1950s and the 1960s. I can say if we work forward from now we, if we start working on it we will surpass 1950s and 1960s, albeit in a new context, the context not of Non-Aligned movement but in the context of a world that is being shaped unfortunately by double polarisation,” the envoy said during the discussion organised by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA).

The envoy highlighted that the world is now facing increasing polarisation between “the East and the West and the North and the South”.

“If you look at the positions, the disciplined position of India and the disciplined position of Egypt when it comes to this double polarisation, I think the era of Nasser and Nehru can be surpassed by that of Modi and Sisi,” he stressed.

The Egyptian envoy, however, said Nehru understood Egypt much more than the West understood the nation. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser and former PM Jawaharlal Nehru together founded the NAM along with Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito, Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah, and Indonesian President Sukarno. The movement was a grouping of countries that neither aligned with the US nor with the then Soviet Russia and sought to remain neutral.    

According to Ambassador Hamed, Modi and al-Sisi both came to power in 2014 and since then both leaders have worked towards the progress of the bilateral ties keeping development in focus.

He said the visit of President al-Sisi is happening at a time when the world is witnessing “radical changes”.

“The world we are living in today is not the world of the 1950s and 1960s when we speak about non-aligned movement. The issues of that time were so much different than the issues of today,” Ambassador Hamed said, listing the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine War, food security and energy security among the major challenges that the world is facing.

‘Security Of Indian Ocean Starts From Security Of Red Sea’

On the margins of the Republic Day celebrations, President al-Sisi and PM Modi will also be holding a bilateral summit in which the primary focus will be on strengthening the defence and security ties.

“We are going to start a new strategic partnership,” he said, adding that one of the main pillars in this will be the defence and security pillar.

The envoy added: “When we speak about India and its position in the world, we have to always remember that India is the major country in the Indian Ocean and the security of the Indian Ocean starts from the security of the Red Sea.”

He said for Egypt the security of the Red Sea is linked with the security of the Suez Canal.

“The Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea is one continuum flows from one into the other and both of them depend on each other for their security.”

Ambassador Hamed said India and Egypt will not only do joint military exercises between the air and naval forces, but also between special forces.

On India’s G20 Presidency, the envoy said: “This is truly going to be two countries coming together to represent the voice of the south on the international level.”

He said as far as two-way trade is concerned, India and Egypt have been able to reach $7 billion with a set target of reaching $12 billion by 2027.

According to the envoy, Egypt has signed a free trade pact with the European Union and thus can act as a gateway for Indian exports to the European, African and Middle-Eastern markets with whom Cairo has free trade agreements.

President al-Sisi last visited India in September 2016 when he met PM Modi and both vowed to strengthen their developmental, economic and security ties.