Israel to invest $69 mn to boost agri, tourism ties
In the run-up to the state visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to India from January 14 to 19, Israel on Thursday said it will invest $68.6 million to boost cooperation with India in areas such as tourism, technology, agriculture and innovation over a period of four years.
Netanyahu will be visiting New Delhi, Agra, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. In Jerusalem, Netanyahu sought to move beyond India’s vote in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution condemning the US for its decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. “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,” Netanyahu, addressing the Government Press Office’s annual end-of-year reception for the foreign press corps, said in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
In New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs stressed the importance of the visit was to commemorate 25 years of establishment of India- Prime Minister Narendra Modi ( left) and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on July 6, 2017 Israel diplomatic relations, and that this was a “return visit” to the historic visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel in July 2017. Modi’s was the first-ever state visit by an Indian PM to Israel, where the India-Israel relationship was upgraded to the strategic level, with special focus on cooperation in agriculture and water.
Netanyahu also highlighted the historic nature of Modi’s visit to Israel and strengthening of bilateral relations. “I think everybody can see that. Prime Minister Modi’s visit was a very important milestone in that. My visit to India is the other one,” he said.