Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to India promises to be fruitful, and one that can bring the two countries closer than ever before. The significance of his visit should be seen in the context of India’s vote at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) last month, where India voted against the US government’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and thereby against Israel.
India’s vote came as a shock to some foreign policy analysts and they were apprehensive about the future of Indo-Israeli relations. But these apprehensions were put aside by New Delhi’s skillful diplomacy which made Israel realise that India’s vote at the UNGA doesn’t mean that India cares any less for Israel and India-Israeli friendship.
Netanyahu’s visit will strengthen the growing strength and closeness between India and Israel in trade and security, with the two prime ministers expected to talk specifically on issues related to water technology, agriculture, energy, IT and defence. A total of 130 businesspersons from Israel are expected to accompany Netanyahu for trade talks.
Culture is more than just a great facilitator of friendship between countries. The Israeli PM will visit Mumbai on January 18 to attend a special event, ‘Shalom Bollywood’, where the who’s who of the Hindi film industry are expected. The idea of holding such a gala event is to improve cultural and business ties with Israel in the global entertainment market.
But before that, tomorrow (on January 16) Modi and Netanyahu will also be speaking at the inaugural session of Third Annual Raisina Dialogue, India’s premiere foreign policy conference. This will be the first time that a foreign head of government will be speaking at this forum.
Facts and figures aside, this is a milestone where the two powers can come together and become each other’s allies in the longer run. Today, India needs ‘all-weather’ allies more than ever before. With Russia seemingly on a slow drift away from India, there is genuine concern among international relations observers that India might be losing its time-and-tested friend Russia due to New Delhi’s growing proximity with countries like the United States and its decision to join the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or ‘Quad’, the informal strategic dialogue platform for the US, Japan, Australia and India that was initiated by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007 and supported by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Israel could prove to be more than just an ‘ally’. This demands ‘reciprocity’ and, therefore, forward momentum in the Indo-Israeli relations. This bears special relevance in the aftermath of India’s recent UNGA vote on Jerusalem, and the cancellation of the $500-million deal to purchase 1,600 Spike anti-tank guided missiles from Israeli stateowned Rafael Advanced Defence System earlier this month.
Israel has arguably shown its willingness to be India’s ally more than the other way around. New Delhi’s Israel policy since 1947 bears to this view. It was under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was the first Indian PM to invite his Israeli counterpart (Ariel Sharon), that a thaw took place. The closeness further developed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh accepting the Israeli proposal for a free-trade agreement in 2010. The two countries were, of course, brought closer in the tragedy of the Pakistani terrorist attacks on Mumbai in 2008.
Under PM Modi, this growing closeness has — despite a few realpolitikrelated hiccups — picked up momentum. A section of political commentators critical of this growing friendship need to look at it from beyond the filter of India-Palestine and Israel-Palestine relations. The two can be — and should be — seen as being mutually exclusive. The way India has chosen to look beyond Palestinian ambassador to Pakistan Walid Abu Ali sharing the stage with Lashkar-e-Taiba chief and Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed.Israel understands this. Now with Netanyahu’s visit that some thought would be ‘cancelled’ after the UNGA vote, India needs to show that it also understands it.
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