- Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi arrived in Pakistan on Monday,
on a South Asian tour that will also take in India as he works to promote trade
and investment in his nation’s troubled economy.
Mursi will meet with President President Asif Ali Zardari during the one-day
visit, the first to Pakistan by an Egyptian leader since Gamal Abdul Nasser in
the 1960s, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said.
The ministry said the visit is a “watershed and a landmark” in relations
between the two Muslim nations which would “give a new impetus to economic,
trade and cultural relations”.
“President Mursi’s decision to choose Pakistan as the first South Asian
country for a bilateral visit manifests Egypt’s desire to add a new chapter to
its bilateral ties with Pakistan,” it added.
Officials from the two countries signed agreements to promote cooperation in
shipping, investment, information technology and science and
technology.
Pakistani state television showed live footage of the ceremony at the
presidential palace where Mursi was greeted and presented with a military honour
guard.
Late on Monday he is due to travel to India, where he will meet with Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and business groups to bolster a blossoming trade
relationship worth $4.5 billion (Dh16.5 billion) in 2012/11 compared to $3.2
billion the previous financial year.
“Our trade with Egypt has increased so rapidly in the last three years that
India is now Egypt’s seventh-largest trading partner,” India’s ambassador to
Egypt Navdeep Suri told reporters ahead of the visit.
“We talk often in general terms about space, technology and cooperation but
during this visit we are talking in specific terms about launching an Egyptian
satellite,” he added.
Egypt is struggling to restore investor and foreign lenders’ confidence in
the nation, which has suffered a sharp economic decline since the uprising that
overthrew president Hosni Mubarak in February 2011.
Mursi’s administration has been plagued by unrest and deadly clashes between
protesters and police, blocking efforts to build broad-based support for a
needed programme of economic reform.
Courtesy : Gulf News
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