Swaraj meets top Israeli leadership
Visit seen as a build-up to the much awaited trip of Modi to the region
India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj yesterday met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and underscored the importance of bilateral ties during a visit seen as a build- up to the much awaited trip of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the region.
Swaraj, who is on her first visit to Palestine as the External Affairs Minister, said she was looking forward to her discussions with the Israeli leadership. “India attaches the highest importance to the full development of bilateral ties with Israel. Our bilateral cooperation has grown in a number of areas over the past two decades but the potential of our relations are much more,” she told media along with Netanyahu before their meeting.
In his welcoming remarks, Prime Minister Netanyahu said that there had been an upswing in ties between the two countries in recent years. “I take special pleasure in welcoming you here and sending my regards to my good friend and colleague Prime Minister Modi,” he said.
Netanyahu, who has met Modi twice in the past year and a half, has said that “sky is the limit” that can be achieved between the two sides with “limitless” potential.
Swaraj was also expected to meet Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and several ministers.
She will also be meeting the Indian community in Israel.
Swaraj’s visit comes barely three months after the historic visit of President Pranab Mukherjee, the first by an Indian Head of State to 1948 areas, and aims at building on the goodwill generated by that visit.
On Sunday, she visited the occupied West Bank and held talks with the top Palestinian leadership in Ramallah.
She met her Palestinian counterpart Riyad Al Maliki and reaffirmed India’s support for the Palestinian cause, emphasising that there has been “absolutely no change in its policy in this regard”. She later called on President Mahmoud Abbas. She also paid homage to iconic Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat at his mausoleum.