India-Israel Relations

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Context: Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi spoke on the telephone with His Excellency Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel.

Details:

Prime Minister conveyed his warm congratulations to H.E. Netanyahu for his election as the Prime Minister of Israel for a sixth time and wished him a very successful tenure.
The two leaders expressed satisfaction at the rapid progress in the India-Israel Strategic Partnership in recent years and agreed on the potential for further strengthening strategic cooperation in a variety of areas.
Prime Minister invited H.E. Netanyahu to visit India at an early date.

Background:

Israel and India established diplomatic relations on the 29th of January 1992
The two countries have extensive economic, military, and strategic relationships.

Political relations:

Political ties between the two countries are friendly.
Prime Minister Modi undertook a historic first ever visit by an Indian PM to Israel from 4-6 July 2017, during which the relationship was upgraded to a strategic level.

Economic and Commercial Relations:

India is Israel's third-largest trade partner in Asia and seventh largest
Major exports from India to Israel include precious stones and metals, chemical products, textiles etc.
Major imports by India from Israel include precious stones and metals, chemicals and mineral products, base metals and machinery and transport equipment.
Potash is a major item of Israel’s exports to India.

Cooperation in agriculture:

Under a comprehensive Work Plan for cooperation in agriculture signed on 10 May 2006, bilateral projects are implemented through Centres of Excellence.
India has benefited from Israeli expertise and technologies in horticulture mechanization, protected cultivation, orchard and canopy management, nursery management, micro-irrigation and post-harvest management, particularly in Haryana and Maharashtra.
Israeli drip irrigation technologies and products are now widely used in India.

Defence relations:

India is the largest buyer of Israeli military equipment and Israel is the second-largest supplier of military equipment to India after Russia.
Military and strategic ties between the two nations extend to intelligence-sharing on terrorist groups and joint military training.

Indian Community:

There are approximately 85,000 Jews of Indian-origin in Israel (with at least one Indian parent), who are all Israeli passport holders.

Recent developments in defence relations:

In October 2021, India and Israel had agreed to form a task force to formulate a comprehensive 10-year roadmap to identify new areas of cooperation as part of efforts to further advance the bilateral defence cooperation.
At the same meeting, it was also decided to form a Sub Working Group (SWG) on defence industry cooperation and in this regard, a Terms of Reference was signed between the two sides.
Israel has been one of India’s top defence partners supplying a range of high end defence equipment. Indian armed forces rely heavily on Israeli Searcher and Heron UAVs to meet their surveillance requirements with growing need for more.
In the second half of last year, the Army also placed orders for smaller, expendable ‘SkyStriker’ drones to be manufactured in Bengaluru by a joint venture between Israel’s Elbit System and India’s Alpha Design Technologies, which is now part of Adani Group.
The two countries have several joint development projects in the pipeline, including the Long Range Surface to Air Missile also called Barak-8 for the Indian Navy’s warships. The development which saw some delays is now complete and the missile systems are being inducted.
In another important project, in April, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited entered into a memorandum of understanding with IAI to convert six Boeing-767 civil passenger aircraft to midair refuelling aircraft in India for the Indian Air Force.
However, another major deal for two more Phalcon Airborne Warning And Control Systems (AWACS), to add to three in Service, has been stuck for a while for final approval from the Cabinet Committee on Security. With the current focus on indigenous manufacturing and DRDO now indigenously developing larger AWACS, the Phalcon is unlikely to materialise.
The Army which has operated Israeli small arms for a long time had contracted 16,497 Negev Light Machine Guns from Israel in March 2020 under fast-track procurement and they have since been inducted.