Political ties more than excellent, Egypt foreign minister Dr Badr Abdelatty on India ties

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Dr Badr Abdelatty, in an exclusive interview with WION, highlighted the deepening of Egypt-India relations following discussions with India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar. Speaking to WION's Sidhant Sibal, he said, “ we discussed a lot of issues of our mutual interest..our political relationship is more than excellent."

Both nations agreed to intensify high-level visits, with Abdelatty hoping Jaishankar would visit Egypt in early 2026. Emphasizing economic ties, he urged, “ we need hundreds of companies from India to do business in Egypt in light of the very conducive environment" as he emphasised oncooperation in AI, trade, and counterterrorism.

On Gaza, Abdelatty welcomed India's attendance at the historic Sharm El-Sheikh summit, attended by global leaders to 'commemorate the ending of war'. He stressed the need for a UNSC resolution for an international stabilization force and support for Palestinian security to govern Gaza.Abdelatty was in Delhi for the inaugural India - Egypt Strategic Dialogue with EAM Dr S Jaishankar.

Excerpts from the full interview:

Sidhant Sibal: How do you see India, Egypt ties? & This being the first strategic dialogue?
Dr Badr Abdelatty:I'm extremely happy and honored to be in this great country, India, and it's indeed the first strategic round of dialog on the ministerial level. I conducted a very fruitful discussion on thursday with my dear friend and dear brother, the foreign minister, Dr S Jaishankar. We have an agreement signed in 2023 to elevate our relationship to the strategic partnership agreed by President Sisi and Prime Minister Modi. And now we are implementing what was agreed upon. So we discussed a lot of issues of our mutual interest, above all, of course, the bilateral relations between the two countries, how to reinvigorate, and how to further deepen and enhance our cooperation.Our political relationship is more than excellent.Exchange of visits. President Sisi came here, Prime Minister Modi visited Egypt, and we received the Minister of Defense of India and a lot of Indian delegations. Last one was in Egypt just a few weeks ago, the parliamentary delegations and I am herenow. So we agreed to intensify our exchange of visits on the highest level. But the most important and urgent issue here is how to reinvigorate our economic-trade-investment cooperation between Egypt and India. We discuss it in detail, and we have a lot of around 55 Indian companies investing in Egypt, doing business in Egypt, but we need hundreds of companies from India to do business in Egypt in light of the very conducive environment.We talked about traditional sectors such as chemicals, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals,food security, automotive industry and manufacturing localization, but also we have to explore more corporations, areas of cooperation in non-traditional sectors, including digitalization, application of artificial intelligence, industry 4.0. Other than this, renewable energy, clean energy, production of green ammonia and green hydrogen. So this was part of our discussions. In addition to that, we spoke about cooperation in other areas, like cultural exchange, like defense cooperation, especially in training capacity building. And of course, we spoke about a lot of issues, international and regional issues of mutual concern, including Gaza, Sudan, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, and also the situation here in South Asia and in your neighborhood. So it was a very fruitful discussion. AndI'm expecting my dear friend, the foreign minister of India, to come to Egypt in the first half of next year to continue our dialogue.

Sidhant Sibal:Egypt played a key role in the Gaza peace process , & hosted the summit. How do you see the way forward?
Dr Badr Abdelatty:Well, first of all, it was a historical moment, the event in Egypt, the whole world was present. President Trump, leaders of European countries, Latin America, Asian countries, Arab and the Muslim countries. It was a momentous event, commemorating the ending of the war and the four leaders of Egypt, Qatar, United States and Turkey, signed a document to usher in the ending of the war. The way forward is as follows. We have to start as soon as possible, discussions, negotiations about phase two and its implementations.We have to go quickly to the Security Council to issue a new resolution to endorse and to identify the mandate of the International stabilization force, ISF, which was stipulated in Trump peace plan, and to identify the mission, the mandate and the formulation in order to be deployed, to monitor the implementation of the agreement and that the two sides are honoring their commitments.So this is very, very important. We have to finalize discussions on issues such as the security arrangement, which will be on the hand of the Palestinian policeman, and with the support of the ISF, as well as the issue of governance, who will govern Gaza. And as you know, we have proposed before the administrative Palestinian committee of 15 members. We have agreement on that among Palestinian factions, and they are all technocrats from Gaza. They will run Gaza for a transitional period till the Palestinian Authority will be deployed to ensure the connectivity between Gaza and West Bank, the two regions for the future Palestinian state. And also,don't forget the fact that the board of Peace is important also to support the Palestinian security apparatus, to support the Palestinian Administrative Committee, which will take care of the daily life of the people, providing basic services for the people. So let's work on that, and this is what we are pushing for.

Sidhant Sibal: - Terrorism is a major scourge . You were amongst the first countries to condemn the Pahalgam terror attack. How do you see India Egypt counter terror cooperation?
Dr Badr Abdelatty: We are in the forefront in fighting terrorism, because Egypt was the most affected country in the world due to terrorism. We have a very, very successful story, and we are standing ready for our friends, including India to see this model which is based on holistic approach, focusing not only on security approach, but also with the socio-economic approach in order to deal with the root causes, creating jobs, empowering young people, and also the most important issue here is fighting extremist ideology through training of young preachers, young Imams and the most notable Sunni institution in the world, Al-Azhar Sharif is a key element in fighting extremist ideology. Al-Azhar Sharif stands ready to provide training to young preachers, and we have a very successful model called Azhar observatory.And this observatory is very important, where we have around 200 young men and women. They have knowledge on Islam and they have linguistic skills of at least 12 foreign languages, and they are surfing the internet, communicating with young people from all over the world, telling them, correcting their ideas about Islam- Islam of moderation, of tolerance, of coexistence, and not those who been hijacked by a bunch of criminals, terrorist groups.So this is very important, and we are cooperating with India on that. My only message to everybody is that it's a big mistake to link this ugly phenomenon called the terrorism with any religion or culture or civilization or specific people. This is a global phenomenon, and we have to work together in order to fight it, no single country can fight this global phenomenon alone. That's why we have to work together. And we are in the forefront in fighting terrorism, and we have an excellent, successful story, and we are standing ready to share it with everybody, including our friends here.

Sidhant Sibal: And India's presence at the Sharm El Sheikh peace summit?

Dr Badr Abdelatty: We had extended an invitation to India, and we've been happy that India was participating, because India is not only a regional power. It's a global power. And of course, their involvement is very important, andwe need now to work more and more with India, especially with regard to providing food support to the people of Gaza, especially medical equipments, medical treatment.And we have discussed this with our Indian friends, with my dear friend, the foreign minister of India, Dr S Jaishankar.