India and Egypt on Wednesday elevated their relationship to a strategic partnership covering political, security, defence, energy and economic areas and decided to take concrete steps against cross-border terrorism and radicalisation.

After wide-ranging talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El –Sisi at a joint media interaction, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, ”We have decided to elevate our bilateral relations with Egypt to a strategic partnership. We have decided that under India-Egypt Strategic Partnership, we will develop a long-term framework for greater cooperation in the fields of politics, security, economics and science.”

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The visiting dignitary will be the chief guest at the Republic Day tomorrow. The two countries also exchanged MoUs in the fields of cyber security, culture, information technology, cooperation on youth matters and broadcasting

The prime minister said the two countries have also decided to take the bilateral trade between their countries to $12 billion in the next five years. He also disclosed that he had discussed with President Sisi ways to strengthen supply chains that were affected due to Covid-19 and the Ukraine conflict. The two countries, he said, have closely witnessed how the healthcare infrastructure and global supply chains got disturbed in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

The PM noted that both India and Egypt were concerned over growing incidence of terrorism in the world. Terrorism, he said, posed the biggest threat to humanity and both countries felt the menace must be uprooted.

Modi said there were immense possibilities for cooperation between India and Egypt in the field of security and defence. Over the last few years, there has been an increase in joint exercise training and capacity-building by the forces of the two countries, he noted.

”I welcome the Egyptian President and his delegation to India. Tomorrow, he will be the chief guest on Republic Day. I am happy that the Egyptian military contingent will also be participating in the parade,” the PM added.

On his part, the Egyptian leader said he discussed terrorism as well as COP-27 with PM Modi. ”We also discussed security cooperation between Egypt and India. I have thanked PM Modi for inviting Egypt as a guest country for the upcoming G20 summit,” he added.

President Sisi said the two sides also discussed trade and investment and how to further expand cooperation in imports and exports.

”We also discussed cooperation in Green hydrogen and renewable energy sectors. India and Egypt are old cultural civilisations. The issue of connectivity was also discussed between the two countries in order to boost tourism,” he added.