Egypt
India and Egypt, two of the world’s oldest civilizations, have enjoyed a history of close contact from ancient times. Even prior to the Common Era, Ashoka’s edicts refer to his relations with Egypt under Ptolemy II. India and Egypt share close political understanding based on long history of contacts and cooperation in bilateral, regional and global issues.
The new thrust to bilateral ties comes at a critical moment in India’s emergence as a key player in evolving geopolitical relations as a voice of the “Global South”, and as a rising economic power. The India and Egypt strategic partnership is to be built on four pillars that have formed the core of the relationship — politics, defence and security; economic engagement; academic and scientific exchanges; cultural and people-to-people contacts.
Capacity Building & Other Exchanges
- The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme was launched in 1964 as a bilateral programme of assistance of the Government of India. Being essentially bilateral in nature, ITEC is about cooperation and partnership for mutual benefit. It is demand-driven and response-oriented.
- Over the past few years, hundreds of Egyptian government officials have benefited from this programme. There are various training programmes under ITEC and India Africa Forum Summit-III (IAFS-III). Since the year 2010, nearly 1,000 Egyptians have travelled to India under the ITEC/IAFS-III Programmes.
- Technical cooperation and assistance have been a major part of our bilateral relationship. Since 2000, over 1600 Egyptian officials have benefited from ITEC and other programs like ICCR and IAFS scholarships. We have also organized a special course for Egyptian diplomats and in 2019 at FSI.
- Government of India also offers CV Raman International Fellowship for African Researchers every year where Egyptian scholars can undertake research in science and technology in prestigious Indian Research and Development (R&D) institutions. The programme has started in the year 2010 and so far, more than 40 Egyptian scientists benefited from the programme.
Development Cooperation (Grants/ LoCs/ Assistance)
- The grants-in-aid projects include: Pan Africa Tele-medicine and Tele-education project in Alexandria University, Solar electrification project in Agaween village and Vocational Training Centre for textile technology in Shoubra, Cairo, which have been completed. An IT Centre in Al Azhar University, CEIT, is also operational since February 2019. The proposal for setting up of Centre of Excellence of IT at Dar-al-Ifta of Egypt is under process.
