India and Egypt may step up defence ties by holding the joint military drill. The defence forces of both the nations will “intensify” their training interactions and the two countries are also striving towards holding joint exercises. The defence ministers of both the countries are on talks to take forward the bilateral defence ties that are growing steadily.
At the conclusion of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s official visit to Egypt, a ministry spokesman said the two nations have agreed to step up military ties.
Sitharaman visited Egypt on September 20-22 on the invitation of Egyptian counterpart General Mohamed Ahmed Zaki Mohamed to take forward the “steadily growing bilateral defence ties” between the two countries.
The two ministers decided to explore deeper cooperation in the fields of the defence industry and research and advancement, including joint production of military equipment.
“Both sides reaffirmed their intent to enhance cooperation in counter-terrorism. Naval cooperation, including cooperation in maritime domain awareness, was identified as a potential area,” the statement said.
Both the ministers agreed to mutual exchange of technical and expert level delegations to follow up on their dialogues. The bilateral ties were strongly articulated by PM Modi and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi during the latter’s visit to India in 2016.
