India, Egypt on same page over terrorism
MODI AND AL SISSI CALL FOR ZERO-TOLERANCE APPROACH
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi and India’s Prime minister Narendra Modi condemned the use of terrorism by countries as a foreign policy instrument and also called for a zero-tolerance approach to terror attacks.
“Both leaders strongly condemned the use of terrorism by the country as a foreign policy instrument and called for zero tolerance of terrorism. And for all those who encourage, support and finance terrorism provides sanctuary to the terror group, whatever their motivation may be,” Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said while giving the details about the meeting between President Sissi and PM Modi.
The media was briefed after Modi held wide-ranging talks with Al Sissi, focusing on ways to enhance bilateral ties in a range of areas, including agriculture, digital domain, culture and trade.
Both leaders decided to elevate their bilateral ties to ‘Strategic Partnership’ covering political, security, defence, energy and economic aspects. In the special briefing, Kwatra also said that both nations had the same challenge and that is terrorism. Kwatra also announced that Egypt, for the first time, invited India for their tri-services exercises ‘Brightstar’.
“One more element in the field of defence … is the joint exercise of special forces of both sides called Cyclone. One is currently being held in Jodhpur, Rajasthan and also for the first time, India has been invited to Egypt’s tri-services exercises called Brightstar, which is to be held later in the fourth quarter of September 2023,” he added.
Strategic partnership
Earlier, the Egyptian President met Modi and held discussions on ways to enhance bilateral ties in a range of areas, including agriculture, digital domain, culture and trade. Al Sissi said that he has invited Modi to Cairo to complete the talks to move forward the ties between the two nations.
Addressing a joint media statement after the talks, Modi said, “We have decided that under India-Egypt Strategic Partnership, we will develop a long-term framework for more comprehensive cooperation in political, security, economic and scientific fields.”
He further said, “We have also decided in today’s meeting to further strengthen cooperation between our defence industries and to increase the exchange of counter-terrorism information and intelligence.
Meanwhile, Al Sissi said: “I am going to take part in the Republic Day parade. I am thankful to PM Modi for such a grand welcome. During our discussions, we talked about trade and investment and how to further expand our cooperation in import and export”.
Al Sissi will be the Chief Guest at India’s 74th Republic Day, marking the first time the President of Egypt has been invited as chief guest on India’s Republic Day.
Earlier in the day, he was welcomed by President Droupadi Murmu, PM Modi and several Union Ministers at Rashtrapati Bhavan.