External affairs minister S.M. Krishna held separate talks on Monday with his counterparts from Germany and Egypt in which bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest were discussed.
The meeting with German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle came on the eve of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to India.
The two ministers discussed wide-ranging issues such as combating international terrorism, recent regional developments, reform of the United Nations security council and cooperation in the field of environment technologies and sustainable development.
With foreign minister Nabil El Araby of Egypt, Mr Krishna discussed the Palestinian issue, the Middle-East Peace Process and the recent Fatah-Hamas reconciliation in which Egypt played a major role.
For Mr El Araby, who has served as Egypt’s ambassador to India in the early 1980s, it was his first visit to India as foreign minister. Mr El Araby would shortly be assuming the office of secretary general of Arab League.