NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister
S Jaishankar will visit Israel next week for the first high-level engagement between the Modi government and the new Naftali Bennett dispensation in Israel.
Jaishankar will hold talks with his counterpart Yair Lapid, who is the alternative prime minister and foreign minister in the new coalition government that came together after Israel went through about five elections in just over two years.
Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, is scheduled to take over the rotating premiership from
Bennett in 2023.
Israel’s foreign secretary Alon Ushpiz, took to Twitter to welcome Jaishankar. “Shubho Bijoya/Happy Dussehra to all of you, on the eve of @DrSJaishankar’s important visit to Israel. India is a strategic partner and a very close friend.”
Jaishankar’s visit is significant because the Modi government has had a swinging relationship with the previous Benjamin Netanyahu government, and both sides would be keen to recreate the magic with this government too.
The India-Israel relationship is one of the closest — the ties span areas that are of critical importance for India’s development. These include agriculture and water, with Israel having become one of India’s key agriculture partners, infusing technologies and methods that could transform India’s agriculture while providing solutions for a water-stressed country.
In the security and defence fields, India and Israel have been working together, more so since India’s security challenges multiplied with the stand-off with China in eastern Ladakh.
But it may be time to graduate to the next level, and that will be indicated during the visit.