India keen to court Egypt as China steals a march

New Delhi: With Egypt transiting into a democracy and trying to reclaim its old position as the heart of the Arab world,India is looking at reconnecting with Cairo to make up for the years of neglected ties.

This week,India will host the Egyptian election commissions secretary-general Hatem Bagato,whose first visit to India will focus on Cairos interest in New Delhis electronic voting machines and how they have transformed the election system.India,sources said,was even open to continued collaboration on transferring technology or joint production of such machines for Egypts elections.
But India is yet to aggressively pursue ties with the new Egypt,whose Mohammed Morsi missed meeting PM Manmohan Singh at the recent NAM summit in Tehran.But India is holding out for a properly crafted bilateral visit by Morsi.

China has ramped up its engagement with Egypt,which has been a close US ally for decades.Diplomatic sources said the Morsi government believes that China as the next superpower would merit as much attention as the US.So Morsi wants to engage the new boys on the block.

Having sat out for over two years in the post-revolution period,Egypt is keen on getting its economy back on track.In fact,Morsi is at pains to explain that Egypt is a civil,not military or theocratic state,to assuage fears of radical ideologies taking a grip of ancient states,in the post-revolution era.For that,Egypts economy has to be revived fairly quickly.That could be Indias opportunity.