Al Ahram, p.6 , (8/4/2008)

Egypt participates in the India-Africa forum summit in New Delhi today

By: Sally Wafae

    Egypt participates in the events of the India-Africa forum summit hosted by India on April 8-9. During the African union summit held in Addis Ababa, the Indian Minister of External Affairs extended an official invitation to President Hosni Mubarak to attend the summit and it was received on his behalf by Dr. Ahmad Nazif. He also met with African presidents and Foreign Ministers as well as representatives of economic groupings and five founder states of the NEPAD.

The India-Africa Forum summit aims at boosting partnership between India and Africa in different fields and discussing means of giving momentum to the current partnership. India has been considered, since long decades, one of the positive friends and partners of Africa. It works on transferring its expertise to Africa especially in the field of development such as that related to its green revolution through which India managed to provide food security for its people.

Electronic networking between African countries is one of the examples of result of partnership between India and Africa. The Indian private sector is also cooperating with Africa just as the Indian public sector.

The Egyptian-Indian ties

As for the Egyptian-Indian relations, they are deeply rooted. Egypt and India had a long struggle against occupation and there were contacts between the Egyptian leader Saad Zaghlol and the Indian leader Gandhi because they had common patriotic targets and principles related to getting independence from Britain and keeping the national unity among all the popular fronts.

After July 23^rd revolution, a strong relationship emerged between Nasser and Nehru. This friendship crystallized during Bandung conference held in 1955. The two leaders had the same directions in their foreign policies. Non-Aligned movement represented a solid basis for this policy. India supported Egypt during all its different stages of struggle. When Egypt was exposed to 1965 aggression, Nehru defended the Egyptian cause and threatened of withdrawing from the Commonwealth. When Egypt was attacked by Israel in 1967, India supported Egypt and the Arabs in their struggle against Israel. It also supported the peace initiative of President Saddat and described his visit to Jerusalem as courageous and positive. It considered the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement the first step of a just settlement for the Middle East problem.

India granted Mubarak Jawaharlal Nehru prize for peace and international understanding in 1995 on the occasion of the celebration of the 50^th anniversary of India's independence. India is continually renewing its call for President Mubarak to visit India to take ties between the two countries to new horizons.

At the time being, Egypt and India have strong ties in different fields. Indian investments in Egypt have reached $ 350 million which are spread over 33 projects in different industrial, consultative and services fields. The most important Egyptian exports to India are raw cotton, raw and manufactured fertilizers, crude oil and its derivatives, leather, and metal articles.

The most important Egyptian imports from India are yarn, sesame, tea, coffee, price, pharmaceuticals, vehicles spare parts, and rubber.

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