Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off a two-day visit to Egypt on Saturday, a trip that underscores the growing ties between the two countries. Modi's flight landed at Cairo's international airport Saturday afternoon, coming from a four-day trip to the United States where he held talks with President Joe Biden, delivered a speech to the US Congress, and met with top American and Indian executives. It's the first state visit to Egypt by an Indian prime minister since 1997. Modi was received by Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly. The two leaders are scheduled to hold a roundtable meeting on Saturday to discuss aspects of bilateral cooperation, including trade, investment, and security. Modi and Madbouly inspected an honor guard and listened to the national anthems. Modi took to Twitter to thank Madbouly for "the special gesture of welcoming me at the airport," and added, "May India-Egypt ties flourish and benefit the people of our nations." Modi is scheduled to hold talks with President El-Sisi on Sunday. Modi's visit came six months after El-Sisi attended India's Republic Day parade as an official guest. During the state visit, the two countries agreed to elevate their relationship to a "Strategic Partnership." One of the key areas of discussion during Modi's visit is likely to be trade. India is interested in exporting more goods to Egypt, and Egypt is interested in importing more wheat from India. In January, El-Sisi and Modi agreed on measures to increase the two-way trade in five years to $12 billion, up from $7.3 billion in 2021-22. During El-Sisi's visit, the countries also signed agreements on expanding cooperation in cyber security, information technology, culture, and broadcasting. India is one of the top five importers of Egyptian products, including crude oil and liquefied natural gas, salt, cotton, inorganic chemicals and oilseeds. Major Indian exports to Egypt include cotton yarn, coffee, herbs, tobacco, lentils, vehicle parts, ships, boats and electrical machinery. More than 50 Indian companies have invested around $3.15 billion in various parts of the Egyptian economy, including chemicals, energy, textiles, garments, agri-business and retailing, according to India's External Affairs Ministry. However, the two countries may also discuss the possibility of barter trade, in which Egypt would purchase goods from India using rupees. This would help to boost trade between the two countries, as well as help diversify Egypt's sources of imports. Mohammed Soliman, director at the Middle East Institute, told Daily News Egypt earlier that India and Egypt are converging strategically on common concerns such as terrorism, regional stability, maritime security, and the "global (dis)order." Soliman explained that the two countries aim to collaborate effectively to address these challenges and expand trade and economic cooperation. "Today, countries pursue multi-alignment, focusing on specific issues instead of all-encompassing alignment," he said. On Saturday morning, before flying out to Cairo, Modi met several CEOs including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman among others. Amazon and Google later announced mega investments in India after their chief executives met Modi during his visit to the United States. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy took to Twitter to announce that the e-commerce giant will invest a total of $26 billion in India by 2030. The $26 billion investment includes the earlier announced plans to pump in $12 billion into cloud infrastructure in India by 2030. This investment will be supporting an estimated average of 1,31,700 jobs in Indian business each year, the company had said in a statement. These positions, including construction, facility maintenance, engineering, telecommunications, and other jobs, are part of the data center supply chain in India. Besides Amazon, search engine giant Google will set up its global fintech operation center at GIFT City in Modi's home state Gujarat. "It was an honor to meet PM Modi during the historic visit to the US. We shared with the Prime Minister that Google is investing $10 billion in India's digitization fund. Modi's visit to the US has attracted a number of other high-profile commitments this week. US memory chip firm Micron said it will invest up to $825 million in its first DRAM and NAND assembly and test facility in India, whereas Applied Materials pledged to invest $400 million over four years in a new engineering center in the country. — Agencies
