Israeli PM’s visit expected to deepen India ties
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu will begin a five-day visit to India today, leading a 102-member trade delegation to strengthen economic and defence ties.
Mr Netanyahu’s trip, which marks 25 years of full diplomatic relations between India and Israel, is the second by an Israeli prime minister to India. Ariel Sharon visited in 2003.
The chemistry between Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and Mr Netanyahu was evident in Israel last July, with embraces, a walk on the beach unaccompanied by minders and the statements telling of shared challenges.
“He speaks about you all the time,” one of Mr Netanyahu’s ministers told Mr Modi.
Mr Modi also took the unusual step of not visiting Palestine during his trip. It is a side visit that has become the norm for leaders going to Israel.
Events since seemed as if they might rock the relationship. In November, India cancelled a US$500 million (Dh1.83 billion) order for anti-tank missiles from Israel.
This month, India voted for the UN resolution that criticised US president Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Mr Modi also plans to visit Palestine in February after a trip to the UAE.
But Israel and India have been at pains to emphasise that these events will not alter their relationship.
“Well, I would have preferred a different vote, to be frank, but I don’t think it materially changes the tremendous flowering of relations between India and Israel,” Mr Netanyahu said on Thursday.
Of the cancelled missile deal, he said: “I think you are going to see an expansion of economic and other ties regardless of this or that deal.”
Kabir Taneja, an associate fellow at the New Delhi think tank Observer Research Foundation, said Mr Netanyahu’s five-day trip was “a long time for any state visit. So the optics are strong from the get-go”.
The Israeli prime minister will land in New Delhi, where Mr Modi will host a private dinner for him today.
Mr Netanyahu will pay a visit to the presidential palace, preside over a meeting of Indian and Israeli businessmen and inaugurate the Raisina Dialogue, a three-day foreign policy forum convened by the Observer Research Foundation.
The two will then travel to Gujarat, the Indian prime minister’s home state, for a visit to Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram and an investment roadshow.
In Mumbai on Thursday, Mr Netanyahu will meet business leaders, attend a memorial for the victims of the 2008 terrorist attacks on the city, and appear at Shalom Bollywood, a film industry event.
India and Israel are eager to expand trade, from the present annual value of $4bn to $10bn by 2022. Defence plays a large part in this. Israel sells almost $1bn in defence hardware to India every year.
The cancellation of the anti-tank missile contract was, in this context, not a significant setback, Mr Taneja said.
The deal is now being reworked as a “government-to-government” contract, so that India buys the missiles from the Israeli state rather than from a company based in Israel.
Mr Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party have not tried “to hide the fact that they find big commonalities between India and Israel”, Mr Taneja said.
“Both are seen as victims of Islamist terrorism for decades,” he said. “Both Netanyahu and Modi have common political and ideological backgrounds, with nationalism leading the narratives from a Hindu point of view for Modi and Zionist point of view for Netanyahu.”
But India will try to maintain a balance in its dealings with Israel and Palestine.
“Let’s not forget that before Modi visited Israel last year, he hosted Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas in New Delhi as well,” Mr Taneja said.
The UN vote was influenced, in part, by Mr Modi’s domestic political challenges and a reluctance to give the opposition ammunition by abstaining from, or voting against, the resolution.
“India’s stance on Palestine is not new and Israel is well aware of it.”
While India has a warm relationship with Israel, Mr Modi must try to balance his dealings with it and with Palestine