Al Ahram, P.6 (8-7-2009)

In his statements to "Al Ahram", Mr. N. Ravi, Secretary (East) Indian External Affairs Ministry:

The NAM will always remain a bright model for others to follow

Interviewed in New Delhi by Tarek El Sheikh

The first half of the current month, July, witnesses tow important meetings in which both Egypt and India will be participating: the first is the G-8 Summit in L'Aquila, Italy (the countries are among the members, which have promising economies and they participate in the annual dialogue of the Group). The second is the XV NAM Summit in Sharm El Sheikh, as India will participate in the Summit, which will be hosted by Egypt. The common feature between the two meetings is the protection of the interests of the South Countries and seeking better future for their peoples.

"Al Ahram" convened a meeting with Mr. N. Ravi, the Secretary (East) the External Affairs Ministry of India at the headquarters of the Ministry in the Indian capital, New Delhi. Once Mr. Ravi came to know that I am an Egyptian journalist from Al Ahram newspaper, he happily said, "I am very happy because I will address the readers of such a very important newspaper, which is a key player in shaping the public opinion in the Arab World."

· What is your vision regarding the past and future relations between Egypt and India?

Ans.: The Indo-Egyptian relations date back to long centuries in the past since the time of the pharos. In the modern age, the three founders of the NAM were President Gamal Abdel Nasser from Egypt, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru from India and President Tito from former Yugoslavia.

The Indo-Egyptian relations have special features and this matter is reflected through our participation in the NAM.

In this context, I would like to say that though India and Egypt adopted different economic approaches, they had a common objective, namely, improving the living conditions of those living under poverty line and offering better the living standard for the people in both rural and urban communities.

Looking at the Indo-Egyptian relations today, we will find that the strong foundations laid down by our leaders are well reflected in several domains. The Indian investments in Egypt are touching the level of US$ 2 billion and bilateral trade exchange between the two countries is estimated at US$ 2 billion. Our trade relations are diversified in view of the regular changes of the requests of the economy and citizens in both India and Egypt.

During the last few years, rapprochement between India and Egypt has become much closer and this was reflected in the exchange of the high-level visits and the holding of meeting of the Joint Commission. This is in addition to the most remarkable event in the Indo-Egyptian relations, namely, the most successful visit paid by the Egyptian President Mohamed Hosny Mubarak to India in November 2008.

· What is your vision regarding the Egyptian-Indian cooperation within the framework of NAM?

Ans.: The consultations between the two countries over key international issues, as I mentioned earlier, is also done under forums, like the NAM.

We can say that the opportunities created by globalization enabled India, Egypt and the rest of the NAM member states to think of making use of the potentials and skills they have in certain sectors in addition to enhancing interaction among them.

Today, bilateral interaction communication can be achieved via export and import. But, it is more importantly to achieve this through sharing of experiences. What has been added to our knowledge and skills should be shared to enhance this knowledge and experience and to enable more and more people to acquire these skills. Hence, they would be able to create wealth for their countries. This is the most important dimension of the south-south cooperation.

The Non-Aligned Movement has been, and will remain, a brilliant model and a very important example. Today, the significance of NAM is attributed to the fact that its member states have various experiments. Each of these states is aware of its own capabilities and skills and they know well what they need. Today, they have an opportunity to make a harmony between the two things, I mean between their "capabilities" and their "needs", and to set a framework that achieves the highest level of rapprochement and cooperation among the states of the South.

· Q. What do you think about the Egyptian-Indian participation in the G-8 Summit in L'Aquila?

Ans. If you look at L'Aquila meeting in Italy, you will find several issues that face us annually. Such issues may have previously been faced by other countries. These countries have learnt to solve such issues in the past. Hence, they would like to share their experiences with others.

The G-8 summit offers India and Egypt an opportunity to know about the countries, which have made more progress, even slightly, than the countries of the South, with the objective of avoiding an inconvenient path or repeating mistakes others have fallen into. As technology and means of implementation are available, we can achieve the same results achieved by developed countries, but in a shorter time and a better way.

I think the meeting of the emerging countries, whether its discussions focused on industrial and financial cooperation or the issues of climate change, will allow us to meet and discuss mistakes and problems that others have previously dealt with and that we want to avoid in the present, since the solutions for those problems have already been found.

There are several opportunities in various sectors like the sectors of renewable energy, technology or communications. We might also pay attention to other sectors like culture, tourism or any other sector.

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