Modi must woo Egyptian president el-Sisi with realism not history

The annual season for high-profile diplomatic visits to India has begun earlier than usual this year. Over the past week we have had Burma’s President U Htin Kyaw and US secretary of state John Kerry dropping in for formal meetings in New Delhi. The President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, arrives today, September 1, for a three-day visit.

As has become the practice, boring and cliched though it is, all such visits are described as “extremely important” and their outcome invariably adds a “new momentum” to a “strong relationship”.

For variation, sometimes the visits take the bilateral relationship to a “new level”. Diplomatic code words are best understood by diplomats and journalists on the foreign office beat; it’s a bilateral dialogue of sorts between them.

Momentum

But let’s get back to President Sisi’s visit, which too has been advertised as “extremely important”. But will it result in adding a “new momentum” to relations between India and Egypt that date back to the times when ships carried papyrus and crystallised sugar (still known as "misri", named after Misr) to our shores?

India and Egypt share hundreds of years of history with the people of these two antique lands getting to know each other through trade and cultural interaction.

After the Suez Canal opened, that became a marker in more recent times, though not only for India. Egypt was and remains the marker between the Maghreb and the Mashreq.

It was Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who infused a new life to this relationship, taking it on an entirely different trajectory and into the orbit of global politics.

By joining hands with Gamal Abdel Nasser and Marshal Tito while forging the Non-Aligned Movement he was spanning continents and re-crafting standalone nationalism in the post-War era.

Yet for all the bonhomie and backslapping there really was little to show beyond pompous statements and declarations of affection. Moscow, not New Delhi, wielded influence in Cairo, later the USSR was dumped by Anwar Sadat for the US. The Americans called the shots till Hosni Mubarak fell from grace and was ousted in a popular uprising during the tumultuous days of the Arab Spring of which we hear no more.

The Non-Aligned Movement is now a footnote of history. In Egypt, Nasser is distant memory; in India, the Nehruvian consensus on foreign policy was abandoned long ago.

Revolution

Egypt has witnessed a revolution within the revolution with Sisi leading a coup against Mohamed Morsi and ridding his country’s power structure of the Muslim Brotherhood and its sympathisers.

In India, an entirely new leadership has come to power — the BJP is ideologically and ideationally different from the Congress with which the Egyptians have dealt till now.

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This by itself opens up huge possibilities of reframing the India-Egypt relationship, elevating it from one of stodgy bilateralism to proactive participation in development programmes. India has to look beyond Amitabh Bachchan and Bollywood films; it has to talk tangible benefits to Egypt and Egyptians.

Suggestion

There has to be more to what India has to offer. A million dollar credit or a token skill development centre are inconsequential when China has pledged $15 billion towards the building of a new capital city east of Cairo. More important, India needs firm reciprocal gestures from Egypt before big ticket commitments can be made.

There is some suggestion that efforts will be made to wean away Egypt from the OIC’s pro-Pakistan politics. That’s easier said than done. Egypt remains firmly close to Pakistan — Gen Raheel Sharif travelled to Cairo to discuss "regional security" with Sisi - and in the past two decades has voiced Islamabad’s position on Jammu & Kashmir.

All that is unlikely to change; indeed, expecting it to change would be silly. India should look at a medium-term policy to engage Sisi and his government, and use that as a base for building the relationship further. New Delhi can’t compete with Beijing in wooing Cairo and would be well advised to not even think of treading in that direction.

There was a time when Egypt was the fulcrum of the Arab world. It is now just another Arab state - important, no doubt, but in a different sort of way than what Nehru imagined and Nasser dreamed of. In other words, realism should take centre-stage, not pious assertions of history.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)