Modi awarded Egypt’s highest state honour

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today received Egypt's highest state honour, "Order of the Nile", from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Cairo.

Modi, who arrived in Cairo on Saturday, is the first Indian prime minister to pay a state visit to Egypt in more than two decades. His two-day stop, focused elevating ties between the two counties, came six months after El-Sissi was in New Delhi as an official guest at India's Independence Day.

El-Sissi welcomed Modi yesterday morning at the presidential palace in Cairo. He awarded the visiting prime minister the Order of the Nile, Egypt's highest state honour, according to Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for India's external affairs ministry.

Modi's trip to Egypt has focused on strengthening bilateral ties between Cairo and New Delhi. The prime minister said both countries have been moving swiftly to increase bilateral trade to $12bn annually within five years – that's up from $7.3bn in 2021-22.

"This is a remarkable year for our shared relations," Modi told a meeting with Egyptian prime minister Moustafa Madbouly on Saturday.

Earlier this year, both countries agreed to boost trade cooperation. India, the world's most populous country, is one of the top five importers of Egyptian products, including crude oil and liquefied natural gas, salt, cotton, inorganic chemicals and oilseeds. Major Indian exports to Egypt include cotton yarn, coffee, herbs, tobacco, lentils, vehicle parts, ships, boats and electrical machinery.

El-Sissi and Modi, who came to power in their counties in 2014, have in recent years cultivated a closer relationship and over the last 16 months, they resisted pressure from the West to condemn the Russian war in Ukraine. Both Egypt and India have decades-old ties with the Kremlin.

"There is a change in the global geopolitical and geoeconomic atmosphere wherein both countries wish to play a defining role," India's defense minister Rajnath Singh said during a visit to Cairo in September.

"Egypt's geostrategic location acts as a connecting link between Africa, West Asia, the Mediterranean, and Europe and is also an important country from the Indo-Pacific point of view."