Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. (Photo: Rashtrapati Bhavan)
New Delhi: The Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who arrived in New Delhi in the national capital on Tuesday, was the chief guest for this year’s Republic Day celebrations, which took place on Thursday.
In India, the Republic Day is celebrated on January 26 to mark the day the Constitution of India was promulgated. This year, India is celebrating her 74th Republic Day.
Let’s know about India-Egypt relationship
India and Egypt have been enhancing their bilateral relationship constantly. The prime minister, Narendra Modi, has devoted great time and effort in scaling a new height in bilateral ties between New Delhi and Cairo. Today, Egypt has become one of India’s key partners in the Middle East.
Egypt is also seen as a bridge between West Asia and Africa.
India and Egypt have had historic relations since India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and the-then Egyptian president, Abdul Gamal Nasser, were the leaders of their respective countries. They were also the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement. Unfortunately, the relations lost its warmth over the years as NAM lost its clout.
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Let’s know about Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Sisi was born in Cairo, in 1954. He began his career by joining the Egyptian army. Later, he joined the Egyptian Army’s Command and Staff College. He received further training at the United Kingdom’s Joint Services Command and Staff College, in 1992, and at the United States’ Army War College in Pennsylvania, in 2006.
He then went on to become a commander of an Egyptian army’s mechanized infantry division before becoming the director of military intelligence, in 2010.
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Like Modi, Sisi also came at the helm of power in 2014 in Egypt after the chaos that followed the Arab Spring revolutions, which started from Tunisia and swept across the Arab world, including Egypt. After the revolution in his country ended with the deposing of Hosni Mubarak, the country’s dictator, Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi became the president through a general election.
Morsi made Sisi the country’s defence minister.
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Coup and seizing of power
As the defence minister, and ultimately the commander of the Egyptian military, Sisi was carried out a military coup that removed Morsi from the presidency, on July 3, 2013, in response to the June 2013 Egyptian protests. Sisi replaced Morsi by Adly Mansour, who was made the interim president.
Though Mansour was the president, Sisi was the real power centre in the country.
In March 2014, heeding his supporters’ call to run for the presidency, Field Marshal Sisi retired from the military career to 2014 presidential election. He went on to win the election, which took place in May 2014 and was sworn to office at Egypt’s president, on June 8, 2014.
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During his tenure, he brought political stability and also revived the broken economy. It may be noted that India and Egypt are also celebrating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations this year.
