Egyptian foreign minister meets Khurshid

Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy, on a three-day visit to India, Wednesday held talks with External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on a wide range of bilateral as well as regional issues.

The focus of the two-hour deliberations was to sustain the momentum in India-Egypt bilateral relations and to expand the interactions to wider areas of regional and international issues of interest, said a statement from the external affairs ministry.

Khurshid informed his Egyptian counterpart of India's approval to establishing a Centre of Excellence in Information Technology at the Al Azhar University in Cairo.

The centre will be set up as a project under the India-Africa Forum Summit. Once the centre is completed in a year, it will be able to train 500 students annually.

Both leaders also reviewed the entire expanse of bilateral relations, the possibilities of more regular structured talks on regional and international issues as well as security matters.

They exchanged views on the Middle East peace process and the situation in Syria.

Fahmy also outlined the developments in Egypt and the road map ahead, the statement said.

The two ministers discussed various issues related to enhancing economic cooperation, including the need to ease work permit regulations for professionals.

Currently, bilateral trade between India and Egypt stands at $5.4 billion annually. India is the third largest destination of Egyptian exports ($2.6 billion) and Egypt is the 11th largest destination of Indian exports ($2.9 billion).

The Egyptian foreign minister also called on Vice President Hamid Ansari and met National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon.