CAIRO – 2 May 2018: Indian Ambassador Sanjay Bhattacharyya, who came to Cairo on May 12, 2015 to serve as ambassador to Egypt, has almost finished his 3-year mission and will depart Egypt for his next station, Ankara, Turkey.
Bhattacharyya affirmed the Indian Foreign Ministry’s announcement in late April that the next Indian ambassador to Cairo will be Rahul Kulshreshtha, India’s ambassador to Turkey, with whom Bhattacharyya will exchange places.
Bhattacharyya chose to meet with journalists at the end of his term, because, according to a close source to him, he wanted to see the people with whom he has been familiar before he leaves.
In a goodbye message, Bhattacharyya said that Cairo is his second home. From the moment he came, he felt very welcomed, he said, adding that he is got used to eating bean and green burgers (foul and falafel) for breakfast. Falafel is believed to have been invented by Egyptian Copts about 10 centuries ago.
“Leaving Egypt is very hard, because you build close attachments with people, but this is life,” Bhattacharyya said at the beginning of the conference.
When asked what tasks he should have done but ran out of time for, he answered, “I don’t have any regrets.”
“It is the wish of every ambassador to see all his tasks done, and our mission has been done very effectively,” he explained.
Bhattacharyya said that he has been lucky travelling throughout Egypt, adding that Luxor has become his most favorite city outside Cairo. He said he has travelled to Rachid, Alexandria, Abu Simbel, Upper Egypt, Lake Nasser and all places in between. He also visited Marsa Matrouh on the Mediterranean coast, Alamein and Sinai, and he recently visited the Black and White deserts, as well as Bahariya Oasis.
When asked whether there are any challenges that may emerge due to his movement to Ankara, Bhattacharyya said that he represented India in Egypt and he will represent India in Turkey, explaining that moving to Ankara has nothing to do with the political clashes between Egypt and Turkey.
To have good relations with all countries is part of our policy, Bhattacharyya said, affirming that India also has good relations with Saudi Arabia, as well as Iran and Qatar.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates halted all land, air and sea traffic with Qatar and withdrew their diplomats and ambassadors from the country, accusing Qatar of funding terrorism and censuring its close relations with the regional foe, Iran.
Economic, developmental ties
Total trade volume between Egypt and India reached $3.23 billion in 2016/2017, according to the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence & Statistics in Kolkata, India.
Bhattacharyya affirmed that trade between Egypt and India increased by 15 percent in 2017.
The most significant Indian exports to Egypt in 2016/2017 included beef, mineral oil and automobiles, while the main Indian imports from Egypt included petrol (63.67 percent of total imports), calcium phosphate and raw cotton.
Although Bhattacharyya said he thinks that trade between the two countries is somehow balanced, he said that he wants to see Egypt’s trade with India at a much higher level.
There are 50 Indian companies working in Egypt with a total investment of around $3 billion.
The major Indian investments in Egypt include companies such as TCI Sanmar Chemicals ($1.3 billion), Alexandria Carbon Black, Scib Paints, Dabur Egypt Limited, and pastry and bakery chain Monginis. India also placed a number of cars from Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, and Mahindra & Mahindra in the Egyptian market.
In a seminar on economic relations between Egypt and India organized by the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI), Bhattacharyya said that three Egyptian companies are now investing in India, inviting more Egyptian firms to invest in his country.
Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr (R) and Indian Ambassador Sanjay Bhattacharyya (L) in a meeting on Wednesday - file Photo
In a meeting held in June 2017 between Minister of Investment Sahar Nasr and Bhattacharyya, Nasr explained that Indian investors have a variety of opportunities, including national mega projects in the Suez Canal Development Axis and the New Administrative Capital.
Nasr discussed with Bhattacharyya the chances of sharing India’s experience in developing the skills of state employees, especially in the domain of investment, in order to modernize and facilitate services delivered to investors.
The meeting also included talks over scholarships and training sessions offered by the Indian government within the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Program (ITEC). The ITEC is a program founded on September 15, 1964 and monitored by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs with the aim of achieving bilateral assistance between Egypt and India.
Egypt has sent 160 employees working in state administrative bodies to India to participate in short-term training programs in the domains of public administration, public policy and information technology.
Military cooperation & counterterrorism efforts
In November 2017, Egypt’s Defense Minister Sedki Sobhi met with his Indian counterpart, Nirmala Sitharaman, in India to discuss military cooperation and exchange experiences between the armed forces of the two states. During the meeting, Sobhi reviewed the efforts to fight terrorism.
In September 2016, Egypt agreed with India to develop their counterterrorism cooperation. This will see the two states engage more frequently in intelligence sharing, operational exchanges and the prevention of radicalization of youth.
Indian Minister of State for External Affairs M. J. Akbar attended the ceremony held in October on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Alamein Battle in Egypt.
Akbar met with President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi and described the meeting as “excellent.” He added, "It was also an occasion to reassert what our prime minister has been saying about terrorism, and the message he is giving is 'there is no good terrorism, no bad terrorism; all terrorism is evil,' and President Sisi endorsed that completely."
Egypt has launched Comprehensive Operation Sinai 2018 in February to eliminate terrorists in North and Central Sinai.
The operation involves land, naval and air forces, as well as the police and border guards, targeting "terrorist and criminal elements and organizations", in Sinai as well as parts of the Nile Delta and the Western Desert along the porous border with Libya, strongholds of a persistent Islamic State (IS) group insurgency that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Egyptian soldiers and police.
Akbar laid a wreath at the cemetery of the Indian soldiers who participated in the Alamein Battle, which took place in 1942 during World War II, when Egypt was still under British occupation.
Political cooperation
Akbar expressed gratitude to President Sisi on behalf of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for Egypt’s support of Indian candidate Justice Bhandari during his run for a second term on the International Court of Justice.
Egypt agreed with India to develop their counter terrorism cooperation, September, 2016, Sanjay Bhattacharyya Twitter
The Indian minister affirmed that President Sisi is very eager to take Egyptian-Indian ties to a much higher level, boosting bilateral relations “not simply on a government-to-government level, but [also improving] partnerships on a people-to-people level.”
India, on the other hand, had also supported Ambassador Moushira Khattab, Egypt’s candidate for UNESCO’s director-general position.
Comments
Leave a Comment