India and Egypt sign treaty, Modi meets grand mufti in Cairo
CAIRO, Egypt – India and Egypt signed a strategic partnership treaty on Sunday committing to cooperate in various sectors of the economy.
The treaty, signed by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Cairo, also promises Indian investment in the Suez Canal Authority. Egypt has also established a special unit for India in the cabinet.
Egypt sought India’s help for its request to gain the membership of BRICS (acronym for the regional economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa).
Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said while there were several requests, India was “looking actively” at BRICS membership for its “friendly and strategic partner” like Egypt.
The Egyptian president awarded the Order of the Nile, Egypt’s highest state honor.
In New Delhi Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while countering former U.S. President Barack Obama, for questioning India’s behavior toward minorities, said Modi had received six of the 13 international awards from Muslim countries.
Modi also met with the Grand Mufti of Egypt, Shawki Ibrahim Alam.
According to an official spokesman, they discussed issues related to social and religious harmony in society and countering extremism and radicalization. The grand mufti had visited India recently.
Modi said India would establish a center of excellence in information technology at Dar-al-Ifta, which would be headed by the grand mufti.
Darul Ifta is an Egyptian advisory body for Islamic legal research under the Egyptian Ministry of Social Justice.
“I was honoured to meet Prime Minister Modi. It was a very nice and interesting meeting. In fact, he reflects a wise leadership for a big country like India,” the Grand Mufti said.
He said he had earlier met PM Modi at one of the Sufi conferences in Delhi.
“Between the two meetings, I have noticed that there is a great development in India. It reflects that he is continuously working in India. It also reflects the wise policies being adopted by Prime Minister Modi bringing co-existence between various factions in India,” he said according to Indian media outlets.
Modi also visited the Al-Hakim Mosque administered by the Bohra community.
Prominent Indian Muslim scholar Zafarul Islam Khan called the meeting between Modi and the Grand Mufti a cosmetic measure.
Speaking to the India Narrative news website in New Delhi, Khan, who studied at Egypt’s Al-Azhar seminary, said the Indian government has banned Egyptian scholars from teaching at seminaries such as Darul Uloom Deoband.
He said this showed that the Indian government viewed such people with suspicion.
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