Is New Delhi transforming into Geneva of the East?

In the 1930s, Poet Iqbal had said -- let Tehran be Geneva for the East, then the fate of the World may change. But New Delhi did rise to Iqbal's dreams coming close to Geneva -- becoming a diplomatic point for the meeting of visiting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al -Sisi and the US Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss issues related to Middle East, including Syria, Libya and Palestine. Kerry, who was here to supervise strategic dialogue had delayed his departure by two days, after concluding his official engagements on Wednesday.

India's West Asia outreach got further boost on Friday,when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Egyptian President decided to significantly step up defence, intelligence and security cooperation to effectively deal with challenges of terrorism and radicalisation, just a fortnight after tying in a similar cooperation with Syria.

Egyptian President al-Sisi , who held talks with Modi, asked Indian investors to benefit from the new Suez Canal project and offered them preferential access to Arab, African and European markets, given the free trade agreements Egypt has concluded with these markets. Both leader also witnessed the signing of a maritime transportation agreement between the two countries after the talks. Al-Sisi also stated that he had given instructions to the Egyptian government to develop a plan to increase economic, development, military and security cooperation with India. Both countries have set a bilateral trade target of $8 billion in the near future from $3 billion presently.

There are currently 52 Indian companies operating in Egypt of which 25 are joint ventures with a total investment of $3 billion across a wide range of sectors. As a $286 billion-economy with around 89 million consumers, which is the second largest in Africa, Egypt has tremendous potential as an economic partner, according to a note by FICCI.

Sources here said since both India and Egypt are engaged in fighting terrorism, the two leaders identified the menace as one of the "gravest threats" and decided on greater information and operational exchanges to combat it, besides ramping up defence cooperation. "We are of one view that growing radicalisation, violence and spread of terror are a real threat across regions," Modi said after talks with the president of the strategically located country which is a crucial link between northeast Africa and the Middle East. The two countries agreed on an "action oriented agenda" to drive the engagements in a range of sectors. "They also reaffirmed their resolve to work together at UN on concluding the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism," a joint statement issued after the talks said.

The two leaders welcomed the recent exchanges on security cooperation and counter-terrorism at the level of National Security Advisers and the conclusion of a MoU for cooperation between the two National Security Councils. In the meeting, Sisi appreciated Modi's gesture of supplying 20,000 MT of rice to Egypt at "friendship price" last month. The two leaders agreed to maintain the spirit of friendship and extend cooperation in other food items as well.

The two leaders also "affirmed" the need for a comprehensive and permanent solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict on the basis of the UN resolutions, in implementation of the two-state principle on the establishment of an "independent and sovereign" Palestine State with East Jerusalem as its capital. "They also sought a comprehensive and just solution to the Palestinian refugees' cause in accordance with resolution 194 of the UN General Assembly and the Arab Peace Initiative, in a way that preserves security, stability and peace of all the countries in the region.