Egypt's President Gives Highest Honor to Visiting Indian Prime Minister as Ties Improve

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt June 25, 2023. The Egyptian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt June 25, 2023. The Egyptian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
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Egypt's President Gives Highest Honor to Visiting Indian Prime Minister as Ties Improve

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt June 25, 2023. The Egyptian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS
Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi meets with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Ittihadiya presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt June 25, 2023. The Egyptian Presidency/Handout via REUTERS

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi on Sunday bestowed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Egypt’s highest honor as the two countries tightened their partnership.

Al-Sisi welcomed Modi at the presidential palace in Cairo with the Order of the Nile, the Egyptian presidency said in a statement. The leaders signed a declaration elevating Egyptian-Indo ties to a “strategic partnership,” which means the two nations agreed to intensify their cooperation and hold periodic talks, the statement said.

Egypt and India share deep ties that date back to the 1950s, when they played key roles in founding the Non-Aligned Movement, which sought an alternative path at the height of the Cold War.

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 came six months after Al-Sisi was in New Delhi as an official guest at India’s Republic Day parade.

Modi also invited the Egyptian leader to attend a summit of the Group of 20 leading rich and developing countries, which India will host in September.

Following his talks with Al-Sisi, Modi visited the famed Pyramids of Giza and a historic mosque, Cairo's Al-Hakim, which was recently renovated with the help of the India-based Dawoodi Bohra community. He also paid tribute to Indian soldiers who died in World War I and are buried in the Heliopolis War Cemetery in Cairo.

Modi’s trip to Egypt has focused on strengthening bilateral ties. The prime minister said both countries have been moving swiftly to increase bilateral trade to $12 billion annually within five years.

Trade exchange between the two nations reached $6 billion in last year, a 13.7% increase from $5.3 billion in 2021, according to Egypt's statistics bureau.

The two governments also signed agreements in the fields of agriculture, archaeology, antiquities and competition law, said Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for India’s external affairs ministry.

“My visit to Egypt was a historic one. It will add renewed vigor to India-Egypt relations and will benefit the people of our nations,” Modi wrote on Twitter before departing to New Delhi.

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.

Al-Sisi and Modi, who came to power in their countries in 2014, have in recent years cultivated a closer relationship. Over the last 16 months, they have 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.”

Modi arrived from the United States, where he held talks with President Joe Biden and top administration officials, addressed Congress and met with top American executives.

His meeting with al-Sisi came as global attention focused on a brief rebellion by the head of the Wagner Group, seen as the greatest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin in his more than two decades in power. Neither leader commented on the Russian crisis.



Iraqi Markets a Haven for Pedlars Escaping Iran's Economic Woes

An Iranian woman sells okra at the old market in Iraq's southern city of Basra. Hussein FALEH / AFP
An Iranian woman sells okra at the old market in Iraq's southern city of Basra. Hussein FALEH / AFP
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Iraqi Markets a Haven for Pedlars Escaping Iran's Economic Woes

An Iranian woman sells okra at the old market in Iraq's southern city of Basra. Hussein FALEH / AFP
An Iranian woman sells okra at the old market in Iraq's southern city of Basra. Hussein FALEH / AFP

Every Friday, Alawi crosses the border from Iran into Iraq to sell his produce in the markets of Basra, which serve as a haven for Iranians grappling with economic sanctions.
He is just one of many Iranian pedlars who endure the arduous journey into southern Iraq through the Chalamja border crossing, AFP said.
They bring essential goods such as chicken, eggs, cooking oil and household items to sell at low prices, hoping for a profit that would be unimaginable back home due to sharp currency depreciation and soaring inflation.
"The situation is difficult due to the embargo," Alawi said, referring to Western sanctions against Iran.
Asking to withhold his surname for fear of repercussions back home, the 36-year-old said he had not given up easily on his country, and had tried to sell his produce in a market there.
"There were no customers, and the products would spoil, so we had to throw them away and end up losing" money, he told AFP.
Instead, for the past seven years, he has been travelling to Iraq where he sells okra in summer and dates in winter, earning between $30 and $50 a day –- much more than he could make at home.
"When we exchange Iraqi money" for Iranian rials, "it's a lot," the father of two said.
"We can spend it in five days or even a week," he added.
'A lifeline'
After a brief period of relief from sanctions in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear program, US President Donald Trump reimposed the biting measures during his first term in 2018.
Ever since, the value of the Iranian rial has plunged, fueling high inflation and unemployment.
Prices soared last month by more than 32 percent compared to March the previous year, according to official figures.
Trump announced this week that his administration would restart negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, with talks to take place in Oman on Saturday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said his country's chief aim is for US sanctions to be lifted.
In the meantime, Basra's markets continue to bustle with Iranian vendors.
At the Friday market, bags of rice were stacked on plastic crates next to bottles of detergent.
While some vendors chatted with customers, others dozed off beside their shopping bags, rubbing off the weariness of a long journey.
Hayder al-Shakeri of the London-based Chatham House think-tank's Middle East and North Africa program said informal cross-border trade "has expanded significantly over the past decade as sanctions on Iran have increasingly impacted everyday life."
Basra's proximity to Iran's Khuzestan province, where many residents speak Arabic and share cultural values with Iraq, makes it a primary target for mostly working-class Iranian vendors, Shakeri said.
Among them are women and elderly men whose livelihoods have been severely impacted by inflation, he said, calling the cross-border trade "a vital lifeline".
"Earning in more stable currencies like the Iraqi dinar or even US dollars provides a financial buffer" against the devaluated rial, he added.
Better and cheaper
Iran wields considerable political influence in Iraq and is a major trade partner for the country, the second-largest importer of non-oil Iranian goods.
Trade between the two countries amounts to tens of billions of dollars.
Milad, 17, and his mother have been selling household essentials in Basra for the past two years. Fearing a worsening situation back home, they recently rented a small shop.
In Iran, "finding work is hard, and the currency is weak," said curly-haired Milad, who declined to give his last name, adding that his cousin has been looking for a job since he graduated.
Iraqi math professor Abu Ahmad, 55, strolls to the market every Friday, looking for fresh Iranian goods.
"Their geymar is better than ours," he said, referring to the cream Iraqis have with honey for breakfast.

It is also cheaper.

"They sell it for 12,000 dinars ($8)" compared to an Iraqi price of 16,000, he added.

Shakeri from Chatham House warned that local vendors "resent the competition", and Iraqi security forces sometimes remove Iranians, though they know they will eventually return.

Umm Mansur, a 47-year-old Iranian mother of five, has had a bitter experience since she joined other pedlars six months ago.

At the border, "they insult and mistreat us," she said.

Other pedlars have described similar experiences, saying they were held up for hours at the crossing.

Umm Mansur said she is willing to overlook the mistreatment to earn four times what she would at home.

"In Iran, there is no way to make a living," she said.