India shares special bond with Egypt: Envoy

Cairo: India has a special bond with Egypt and the two countries are now enhancing cooperation in the defence sector which would further strengthen the bilateral ties, the country's envoy here said.

Addressing an event to mark the 51st anniversary of Indian Technical & Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Day here yesterday, India's Ambassador to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya said that the two countries have cooperation in various areas.

"Today we were celebrating the ITEC day and under this programme we invite people from different countries, including Egypt, to talk about different aspects to like IT, engineering, agriculture even in the filed of defence, we feel that this is something that build very strong bond between the two countries and two people," he said.

Under the ITEC programme, fields like security, defence, counter insurgency for defense personnel are offered by prestigious institutes in India, like National Defense College and Defense Service Staff College.

He welcomed the participation of the Egyptian Armed Forces at the ITEC day event, for the first time, and said that defence exchanges is an area of growing cooperation.

The "Tagore Hall" was inaugurated by Bhattacharyya at the event, in the newly renovated Chancery of the Embassy of India in memory of the great Indian poet, painter, revolutionary and Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

Bhattacharyya also highlighted Tagore's friendship with the Egyptian poet Ahmed Shawky adding that he is the only author who penned the national anthems of two nations: India and Bangladesh.

ITEC is a programme of cooperation and partnership under which India has been sharing its technical expertise with friendly developing countries since 1964.

It is an important component of India's economic relations with Egypt. India shares its technical expertise with Egypt under this programme, he said.

The ITEC programme under which every year 10,000 slots are available in 47 institutes of India offering courses in 280 disciplines which includes IT, Public Administration, audit, elections, SMEs, Entrepreneurship, rural development, parliamentary affairs, renewable energy, postal management.

Bhattacharyya said that India is proud of the ITEC alumni network across continents who are the torch-bearers for developing a powerful cultural bridge between India and their native countries.

Magued Osman, President of Egypt-India Friendship Association (EIFA), said that the linkages between India and Egypt is not only cultural but also have many other commonalities and both the countries face similar challenges.

He added that countries can learn from each other in facing these challenges.