Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Egypt as co-operation grows between the two nations

His first visit to Cairo follows a four-day state trip to the US

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visits to the US and Egypt underline his country's rise as an economic and military power. EPA

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Egypt's capital Cairo on Saturday for a two-day visit aimed at bolstering co-operation between the two countries.

It is the first visit to Egypt by Mr Modi and the first by an Indian prime minister since 1997.

His host President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, in office since 2014, has visited India three times. The last visit was in January, when the Egyptian leader was chief guest at India’s 74th Republic Day celebrations.

Mr Modi flew to Cairo after concluding a four-day visit to the US, where President Joe Biden embraced him as he has few other world leaders, offering him the full pomp of a state visit. He also met top American and Indian chief executives and signed a deal with the US for home-grown Indian jet fighters.

The Indian leader’s milestone visit to Washington and his much-heralded trip to Egypt underline his country's rise as an economic and military power to be reckoned with. Surpassing China as the world's most populous country has only bolstered New Delhi’s international credentials.

In contrast, Egypt, the most populous Arab nation with 105 million people, is facing a severe economic downturn that has forced authorities to devalue the country's currency three times since early last year.

Inflation is near all-time highs and a dollar crunch has hurt local industries that depend on imported inputs.

But Egypt is undertaking an ambitious, multibillion-dollar overhaul of its infrastructure.

Cairo also plays a key role in the defence of strategic shipping lanes in the Red Sea and is among the world’s top weapons buyers.

Its Suez Canal, which links the Red and Mediterranean seas, and Egypt's traditional role as a mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict add considerable weight to its regional and international standing.

Cairo and New Delhi have in recent years bolstered ties and expanded trade, with Egypt now showing a keen interest in India’s home-grown arms industry.

The two counties have held a series of joint war games. They share relevant intelligence and co-ordinate counterterrorism efforts, according to Egyptian officials.

In January, Indian and Egyptian troops held joint exercises in India’s Jaisalmer to bolster defence co-operation and share skills.

New Delhi has been steadily focusing on advancing its capabilities to design, develop and manufacture weapons systems under its ambitious Make In India initiative.

Egypt is looking to take advantage of these capabilities for the benefit of its own military industry, officials have said.

Under consideration, they said, is a joint project to manufacture in Egypt military hardware to mainly target markets in Africa.

“They [Egypt] are ready to work with us and they are also interested in a lot of Indian defence products,” said Ani Trigunayat, a retired Indian diplomat with years of experience in the Middle East.

The volume of trade between the two nations stood at about $7.2 billion last year, a 60 per cent increase from 2021. There are plans to increase bilateral trade to $12 billion over the next five years.

India has recently joined the list of nations that export wheat to Egypt, exempting Cairo from a ban on wheat exports to sell it 61,500 tonnes last year. Cairo continues to look for alternative markets after supplies from its two major sources were disrupted following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

Egypt has over the years been the world’s biggest wheat importer.

As a show of India’s growing relations with Egypt, it invited the Arab nation, along with Oman and the UAE, to attend the G20 Summit in September as special guests.