India, Israel ink nine agreements

India and Israel on Monday laid out the roadmap for partnership for the next 25 years, with emphasis on deepening defence and security ties and opening up new avenues of cooperation such as big data and oil and gas exploration.

The two countries also signed nine agreements after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu held extensive talks on Day 2 of Israeli leader’s first India visit. “We will strengthen the existing pillars of cooperation in areas that touch the lives of our peoples,” Modi said in a joint address that followed the talks. “These are agriculture, science and technology and security.”

Netanyahu described Modi as a revolutionary leader. “You are revolutionising India and also relations between India and Israel,” Netanyahu, who shares a good rapport with the Indian leader and even addressed him by his first name, said.

The leaders believe that in the next 25 years the two countries “should strive to raise bilateral cooperation in diverse sectors to a qualitatively new level in consonance with our strategic partnership”, a joint statement issued after the talks said.

The two sides also pitched for an early conclusion of a bilateral investment treaty, as they also looked at ways to increase the bilateral trade which was worth $4 billion. Modi told his guest that his visit was also a “fitting climax” to the commemoration of 25 years of diplomatic relations between India and Israel.

The Indian PM said he had invited Israeli defence companies to work and invest in India to take advantage of the liberalised FDI regime.

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