India, Egypt to hold first-ever drills with special forces - envoy

India and Egypt are set to hold the first-ever military exercises involving the special forces in Udaipur, Jaipur and Jodhpur, Egypt's Ambassador to India Wael Hamed has said.

Hamed made the statement while addressing the media persons here in New Delhi, Business Standard reports.

"We for the first time ever will hold joint military exercises with special forces participating together from Egypt and India in Udaipur, Jaipur and Jodhpur. And we are expanding our defence cooperation not only to joint exercises of air forces and naval but also in special forces," he said.

Participating in a panel discussion on India-Egypt ties in changing global order, he said, "India is a major country in the Indian Ocean and the security of the Indian Ocean starts from the security of the Red Sea in the West and for Egypt on the Suez Canal. The Security of the Suez Canal starts with the Indian Ocean as well. So we are both linked together in the area of security, it is very important for both countries to come together and discuss."

Talking about the bilateral trade target, Ambassador said that the $2 billion doesn't represent the potential of both of the countries. Earlier, Ausaf Sayeed, secretary (CPV & OIA), MEA said that the bilateral trade was recorded at an all-time high of $7.2 billion between 2021 and 2022 and further hoped for trade to further increase to about 12 billion.