To Egyptians, India stands for Nehru -Nasser friendship,
non- alignment, Democracy, IT and Amitabh bachan. Mention Egypt and Indians think of the
Nile, Pyramids, actor Omar Sharif and Tahrir square. President Mohamed Morsi’s
recent state visit was a joint endeavour to begin bringing India and Egypt closer
together, after an estrangement that lasted over two generations. It is best to
candidly recognise the hazards ahead. Egypt is in transition. Morsi is yet to
complete his first year in office. He has lost some of his sheen as the first
democracy elected president. He faces a potent, though fractured opposition of liberal’s
minority and women’s group. He has to
tackle the more enthusiastic elements of his Islamism constituency. Besides the military though presently constrained,
remains a powerful political factor. Acknowledging past difficulties and future
challenges, he has expressed the hope that forth coming parliamentary election
would bring ‘stability ‘and reconciliation among the people.
The president is probably striving to be a balancer,
committed to the magical appeal of political Islam but willing to give it a
modern touch. After all, he is a product of university of Cairo and the University
of Southern California. Morsi would need to be more than a leader of the Muslim
brotherhood and a true democrat, or else he faces criticism as ‘a new Mubarak’.
In this I was struck by the remark made by an Indian official prior to the
visit. He observed that morsi wished to learn from India’s pluralism’. Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh stressed it by landing and therefore encouraging Morsi’s goal to
lead Egypt towards justice democracy and inclusive economic development. For India
Egypt is important for geopolitical terms. South block is able to accord only
limited attention to Arab states, beyond the Gulf States. It restores balance
not only in our west Asia policy also in our Africa policy. Egypt and east Africa
deserves more nurturing even as our relation with Nigeria and South Africa. Hence
the view it as a bridge between Asia and Africa. On some regional and international
issues Egypt’s view are particularly interesting. It wants NAM to become
stronger, where as India’s diplomatic narrative refers it much less, keen to
join the Brazil, South Africa [IBSA] Egypt is now attracted by the bigger club-
bricks. Close scrutiny of documents relating to the visit shows that both
sides, having signed seven agreements, are drawing up promising plans. The new
agreements indicate potential for co operation in diverse fields including IT,
small and medium enterprises energy. Trade has a chance to expand beyond today’s
$5.5 billion mark. The presence of 50 Indian companies in Egypt showed help in
the expansion of two way investments beyond the current level of $2.5 billion. A
key factor in morsi’s success in India was the care he took to respect India’s sensitivities
during his visit to Pakistan.