India and Egypt, two of the world’s oldest civilizations, have enjoyed a history of close contact from ancient times. Even prior to the Common Era, Ashoka’s edicts refer to his relations with Egypt under Ptolemy-II. In modern times, Mahatma Gandhi and Saad Zaghloul shared common goals on the independence of their countries, a relationship that was to blossom into an exceptionally close friendship between Gamal Abdel Nasser and Jawaharlal Nehru, leading to a Friendship Treaty between the two countries in 1955. The Non-Aligned Movement was a natural concomitant of this relationship.

Political Relations

India and Egypt share close political understanding based on long history of contacts and cooperation on bilateral, regional and global issues.  There is a new momentum in our relations and a shared desire to take it to a higher level.  Since the 1980s, there have been four Prime Ministerial visits from India to Egypt: Shri Rajiv Gandhi (1985); Shri P. V. Narasimha Rao (1995); Shri I. K. Gujral (1997); and Dr. Manmohan Singh (2009, NAM Summit).  From the Egyptian side, President Hosni Mubarak visited India in 1982, in 1983 (NAM Summit) and again in 2008. High level exchanges with Egypt continued after the 2011 Egyptian Revolution and President Mohamed Morsy visited India in March 2013. EAM visited Cairo in March 2012 and the Egyptian Foreign Minister visited India in December 2013.

The year 2015 has seen more intense political cooperation between two countries with regular interactions at leadership and Ministerial level. PM Shri Narendra Modi met President Sisi on the sidelines of UNGA, New York in September 2015. Their talks focussed on counter terrorism, deepening economic engagement, and regional issues. PM Modi and President Mukherjee met President Sisi during the Third India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi in October 2015.

2015 also saw, five Ministerial level visits from India to Egypt; which included Shri Prakash Javadekar who participated in the 15^th African Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) in March 2015; Special Envoy of PM, Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi met President Sisi in July 2015; Shipping Minister Shri Nitin Gadkari, represented India at the opening of the new Suez Canal in August 2015 and met President Sisi; and EAM Smt. Sushma Swaraj visited Cairo and met President Sisi, Foreign Minister and Secretary General of League of Arab States in August 2015 (two MoUs on Tourism and Science and Technology cooperation were signed during the visit); Shri Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Minister of State for Parliamentary and Minority Affairs participated in the 25^th International Conference of Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs at Luxor, Egypt in November 2015.

Deputy National Security Advisor Dr. Arvind Gupta visited Egypt in July 2015 and held talks with his Egyptian counterpart. Egyptian NSA Ms. Faiza Abou el-Naga met NSA and Defence Secretary at New Delhi in December 2015 and a MoU on cooperation between the Secretariats of NSCs of both countries was signed during the meeting. The 11^th round of Foreign Office Consultations was held at Delhi in December 2015. Dr. Shawki Alam, Grand Mufti of Egypt participated in the World Sufi Forum, New Delhi, March 2016.

Useful resources

For more information and latest updates please visit:

(a)    Embassy of India, Cairo website: www.indembcairo[dot]com

(b)   India in Egypt Facebook Page:https://www.facebook[dot]com/IndiaInEgypt?fref=ts

(c)    Embassy of India, Cairo Twitter account: https://twitter[dot]com/indembcairo

(d)   Embassy of India, Cairo YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube[dot]com/user/IndianEmbassyCairo

(e)    Sawtul Hind Magazine Facebook page:

https://www.facebook[dot]com/pages/Sawtul-Hind-Magazine-

Political Wing at the Embassy:

Dr. B. Sriram, Second Secretary(Pol. & Inf.)

Phone No.: 2736-4941

Fax No.: 2738-2965

e-mail:dcm.cairo[at]mea[dot]gov[dot]in

Defence Cooperation

1 Historical Background: Egypt and India have always had very close defence cooperation and it is one of the most important aspects of bilateral relations between the two countries. Defence cooperation between the two sides flourished in the sixties and seventies and has since grown from strength to strength. One of the high points of  Indo-Egypt Defence cooperation was the training of Egyptian pilots by Indian Air Force pilots, and a joint venture to manufacture the famous Helwan-300 (Kahira) jet fighter. Over the years, the two countries have worked together on a number of mutually beneficial projects in various field of military cooperation especially training.

2. Joint Defence Cooperation (JDC): Visit of Indian Chief of Air Staff in March 1998 gave a lot of impetus to the Defence cooperation. During his visit various proposals to enhance Defence cooperation were mooted by both sides. Formation of Joint Defence Committee was one such proposal. It was decided that a Joint Defence Committee be constituted which should visit both countries to identify areas of Defence cooperation and suggest specific proposals for collaboration in areas of joint production. The Indo-Egypt JDC was set up in Aug 2006 and its inaugural meeting was held in Cairo in Aug 2006. Five such meetings have been held so far between the two sides.

3.Sixth JDC: Sixth meeting of Indo-Egypt JDC was held in New Delhi in April 2016. A four member Egyptian delegation led by a senior officer of the Egyptian MoD visited India and held discussions with officials of the Indian MoD. During the JDC meeting, areas to enhance bilateral Defence cooperation were identified and discussed in great details. Various activities to be undertaken to boost the Defence ties were also finalized during the visit. The Egyptian delegation called on senior officers of the Indian Armed Forces and paid visits to important Defence installations.  

4.Other Areas of Defence Cooperation: Apart from JDC, the other major areas of defence cooperation between India & Egypt are as under:-

 (a) Attendance of training courses by officers of both countries in each other’s military training institutes.

(b) Regular visits of military delegations from both sides for joint training and exchange of professional knowhow.

(c) Regular visits of Indian Air Force aircraft and Indian Naval ships and aircraft. Joint training exercises are organized during the visits of ships between the Navies of both countries.

(d) Exchange of visits of senior officers of both armed forces.

(e)  Exchange of observers for training exercises.

Defence Team at the Embassy:

Group Captain Sajan Sivaraman, Defence Attaché

Telefax: 2735-7374

e-mail: da.cairo[at]mea[dot]gov[dot]in