BackIsraeli PM describes India as a ‘huge friend’
Jaishankar is on a visit to Israel, the first since Bennett and his eight party coalition came to power in June
PremiumNEW DELHI : Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett described India as a “huge friend" on Wednesday during a meeting with visiting Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar who extended an invitation to Bennett on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit New Delhi.
Jaishankar is on a visit to Israel, the first since Bennett and his eight party coalition came to power in June.
“I speak on behalf of Israelis: We love India. We view India as a huge friend and we’re looking forward to expanding our relationship in all fields and all dimensions. I look forward to a very productive meeting," Bennett was quoted as saying by an Israeli foreign ministry statement.
“On behalf of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar invited Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to make his first official visit to India," the statement made available by the Israeli embassy in New Delhi said.
Bennett and Jaishankar “discussed strengthening the strategic alliance, expanding bilateral ties and deepening the warm friendship between Israel and India. Prime Minister Bennett thanked the External Affairs Minister and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their personal commitment to the partnership between Israel and India," the statement said.
Earlier this week, the two countries announced that they would be resuming free trade negotiations that would start in November and conclude by June. The two countries had also
agreed on mutual recognition of their vaccine certification processes.
Ties between India and Israel have grown steadily since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1992. Relations were boosted further when India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to delink India-Israel ties from India-Palestinian ties. Modi paid a stand alone visit to Israel in July 2017, the first by an Indian prime minister to the Jewish nation. In 2018, he visited Palestine in another stand alone visit that showed the dehyphenation in India’s ties with the two countries.
Cooperation between the two countries spans a wide spectrum – from agriculture and innovation to defence and security. Bilateral trade was about $ 5 billion in 2020-21, according to a note on the Indian foreign ministry website.
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