India-Egypt Joint Trade Committee Holds 7th Session in Cairo

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal reached Cairo on 14 November 2026 on an official visit built around the 7th Session of the India-Egypt Joint Trade Committee (JTC). The session was held in Cairo on 15 November 2026 and was co-chaired by Shri Goyal and Egypt's Minister of Investment and Foreign Trade, Dr. Mohamed Farid Saleh. A business delegation of more than 130 business leaders and start-up founders travelled with the minister.

What the visit covers

Besides the Joint Trade Committee, the programme takes in the India-Egypt Joint Business Council (JBC) meeting and the India-Egypt Business Forum, bilateral meetings with senior Egyptian ministers, and talks with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), the Egyptian Junior Businessmen Association and the Egypt-India Startups Forum. The aim stated for these engagements is to review economic cooperation, settle pending trade and investment issues and open fresh business links in industry and innovation.

The economic picture

Speaking to the Indian community in Cairo, the minister said trade of about US$6.5 billion is only a start for two ancient civilisations, and he called the diaspora a living bridge between the two countries. Nearly 70 Indian companies work in Egypt with investment above US$5 billion, generating direct and indirect jobs for Egyptians. India and Egypt raised their relationship to a Strategic Partnership, and the present visit is meant to deepen trade, investment and industrial cooperation under it.

Homage at Heliopolis

At the start of the visit the minister laid a wreath for Indian soldiers at the Heliopolis War Cemetery in Cairo. Of the 4,000 soldiers buried or commemorated there, 3,727 are Indian. Nearly 2,000 of them died in the First World War and around 1,700 in the Second World War. The minister also addressed a gathering organised by the Indian Community Association in Egypt and met members of the Bohra community in Cairo, whose businesses have long tied the two economies together.

Why the partnership matters

India and Egypt have old civilisational and people-to-people links that have grown into cooperation across politics, the economy, security and culture. Egypt sits at the junction of Africa, West Asia and the Mediterranean and controls the Suez route, which makes it a natural partner for Indian exporters looking at African and European markets. The presence of Afreximbank in the talks points to trade finance for African markets as one of the threads of the visit, while the start-up forum points to technology tie-ups. For aspirants, the markers to carry away are the edition of the Joint Trade Committee, the two co-chairs, the trade and investment figures and the cemetery statistics.