Egyptian president's visit expected to strengthen time-tested ties

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's three-day visit to India next week is expected to deepen the "time-tested" partnership between the two countries, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Saturday. The 68-year-old influential Arab leader is scheduled to visit India from January 24 to 26, during which he will hold wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, grace the Republic Day celebrations and hold an interaction with the business community.

India and Egypt are expected to ink around half-a-dozen agreements to expand cooperation in the areas of agriculture, cyberspace and information technology (IT) following the talks between Modi and Sisi on January 25.

Further ramping up of defence and security cooperation is expected to be a major focus area in the discussions.