Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty. File
| Photo Credit: AP
The Israel-Iran conflict cast a shadow on the diplomatic calendar of India on Sunday (June 22, 2025) with the Foreign Minister of Egypt Badr Abdelatty, who was expected to reach on Monday (23 June, 2025) “postponing” his visit.
The Ministry of External Affairs had announced the visit of Mr. Abdelatty on Saturday, but against the backdrop of regional tension, sources informed on Sunday that the visit will not take place this week.
Follow the U.S. strikes Iranian nuclear facilities live updates – June 22, 2025
Badr Abdelatty was expected to hold talks with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and the External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar during the visit, but sources said, “The visit of the Foreign Minister of Egypt has been postponed. The advisory issued for the visit may be ignored.”
The cancellation of the visit of the Egyptian Foreign Minister to India came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said that a fleet of US B2 bombers carried out raids on the nuclear installations at Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan. Mr. Abdelatty has been one of the top regional negotiators, and he has been in consultation with both the Iranian and U.S. decision makers over the past several weeks.
He had hosted Iran’s Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi on 2 June. On 3 June, he met with a multi-party delegation (led by NCP’s Lok Sabha MP Supriya Sule), from India that visited Cairo to convey India’s concerns about cross-border terrorism from Pakistan.
Mr. Abdelatty was in Istanbul to attend the 51st session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and following the meeting in Istanbul, he was scheduled to fly to India.
Egypt has been in contact with India over the evolving situation, and Indian citizens in Israel who are willing to leave Israel were advised to leave through the Egypt-Israel border. On Friday, a handful of Indian nationals who were in Israel, reached Egypt using the Taba land crossing.
Published – June 22, 2025 01:32 pm IST
