Egypt President in New Delhi for Republic Day - IE - 26/01/23

Context:
This is the first time that an Egyptian President (Abdel Fattah El-Sisi) has been invited as chief guest for the Republic Day celebrations in India.
Relevance:
GS2
About:
->India-Egypt relations:
-History:
India and Egypt share close political understanding based on a long history of cooperation in bilateral, regional and global issues. Diplomatic relations were established on August 18, 1947 (completed 75 years in 2022). India’s PM Jawaharlal Nehru and Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser signed the Friendship Treaty between the two countries, and they were key to forming the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM in 1961) along with Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito.

->The recent engagements:
-India has invited Egypt as a special guest for the G-20 summit.
Exercise Cyclone-I – first ever exercise between Indian Army and Egyptian Army was held in Jaisalmer recently.
-India and Egypt agreed to elevate their bilateral ties to a “Strategic Partnership” covering political, security, defence, energy, and economic aspects.

->State of bilateral trade relations?
-Egypt has traditionally been one of India’s most important trading partners in Africa, as they have had a bilateral trade agreement since 1978 based on the most-favoured nation clause.
-The bilateral trade has increased more than five times (USD 26 billion in 2021-22 – a 75% increase from FY 2020-2021) in the past 10 years.

->Other areas of cooperation:
-Agriculture: Egypt is currently facing a shortage of food grains as its major sources were the warring Ukraine and Russia. In May last year, India- which had put a ban on the sale of wheat, allowed the export of 61,000 tonnes of wheat to Egypt.
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