India and Egypt have robust bilateral ties: envoy

India's ties with Egypt has blossomed into a multi-faceted relationship with robust cooperation in areas like defence, security and business, India's envoy here has said.
At a celebration of India's Independence Day, Ambassador Sanjay Bhattacharyya said, "We are celebrating the 70th anniversary of India's independence and also 70 years of diplomatic relations with Egypt."
"Our friendship has blossomed over these decades and our partnership has grown stronger and multi-faceted, especially in recent years," Bhattacharyya said.
The Ambassador said that today, political ties are robust with cooperation in defence and security between the two countries and economic engagement is huge in size and growing steadily and cultural and people-to-people exchanges are vibrant.

The diplomatic relationship between India and Egypt was established on August 18, 1947.
"We are proud of our civilisational partnership with Egypt the major power having positive influence in the neighbourhood. Together, we championed the cause of developing countries and worked for peace and development," he added.

As part of India@70 celebrations, the Embassy of India in Cairo organised a Sitar recital performance yesterday by a prominent Sitar group led by Agni Kumar Verma at India House in Zamalek.
The recital was attended by dignitaries from the government, diplomats and representatives from culture, industry, media and the Indian diaspora.
Verma said that it is the first time for him to present his classical music in Egypt.

"I think people will like the music as it is a classical India one. Also I prepared an Egyptian music to please Egyptian audiences," Verma told PTI.
The music, which Verma prepared is for the famous song 'Helwa Ya baladi' which was sang by Egyptian-Italian singer Dalida in 1970s.
"I trained on this song for one week because I know that there will be more Egyptian listeners so it will be good to play Egyptian music for them. I prepared it specially for this occasion," said Verma.