India, Egypt need to combat growth of non-state actors: Envoy

Cairo, Mar 8: India and Egypt need to combat the growth of non-state actors seeking to replace established governments, the Indian envoy here has said while calling for the global community to come together to fight terrorism in a united manner.

"The global community should come together to fight terrorism. There is very strong need to combine our efforts to fight terrorism in a very strong concerted and effective way and in a very united manner," Ambassador of India to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya told PTI in an interview yesterday.

"What we are seeing is the growth of non-state actors who are seeking to replace established governments as we understand and we need to fight this in a very deliberate manner and use all our efforts and there is close cooperation between the Indian and Egyptian authorities," he said.

Bhattacharyya said high-level exchange of visits of the national security advisers of the two countries took place recently.

"India has proposed a comprehensive convention against International terrorism at the UN. We look forward to Egypt's support, so that the global community can come together to fight terrorism," he said.

Egypt has always been at the heart of regional discourse and plays an extremely important role in regional issues apart from being a very ancient civilisation.

"The question is only how far Egypt will play a role in not only guiding its people to their destiny but also in guiding people around to a more stable, prosperous and peaceful world.

"Egypt is a remarkable example of how different influences across the centuries have come together and been assimilated and have actually enriched each other in a mutually beneficial manners over centuries and so Egypt can be a tremendous example for the Arab world and Africa in guiding political economic and social direction for the future," he said.

Bhattacharyya said during his nine month here, he has visited many places along the Nile basin and wish to visit others along the sea coast and north coast and the Red Sea.

"I would like to see what is the potential for our cooperation particularly in the field of agriculture, renewable energy and education, and for that I would travel to some different parts of the country and see how we can find the model that will be of mutual beneficial," he said.

Bhattacharyya said Egypt and India share a lot of similarities.

"The greatest similarities between India and Egypt are that we have a great sense of history and our heritage and at the same time we are looking forward to creating a bright future. The other factor is the manner in which our societies and families are associated," he said.

"There is great importance of family in India and I find that it is very much the case in Egypt as well. So when I go to some places outside in Egypt and I see the father, the mother and the little children travelling together, going out for a meal or going to watch a movie, it brings back memories of the way families are in India.

"We are also very close families. We love to celebrate and we find many occasions to celebrate with our families and friends and I see a lot of that in Egypt," Bhattacharyya said.

"I sometime see similarities even in some of the architecture patterns especially on Cairo with some of the architecture pattern in India. The Hindi and Urdu language have derived greatly from Arabic and Persian so there are common words and common ideas and the more you spent time, the more you discover that we are very similar people," the Ambassador said, adding that diplomats often end up writing books about their experiences and "I can say for sure that Egypt will be on top of my list".

PTI