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India-Israel relations: The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi is on his historic Israel visit where he has been given a warm welcome by his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu. In the year 2026, Israel and India enjoy a very stable high-level partnership where both the countries are important for each other on various fronts including defence, agriculture and manufacturing. However, before this era, there was a time when Israel and India were not the best of friends due to multiple reasons including India’s continued support for Palestine as a nation. An incident from those times reflect how Israel supported India even at a time when India was not one of the biggest supporters of Israel.
During the 1971 conflict with Pakistan, then Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi sought international assistance where she reportedly wrote to 61 countries, asking for help, In response, only three responded positively: the Soviet Union, Israel and Yugoslavia.
The account is based on the book 1971 by historian Srinath Raghavan as covered by a report by Navbbharat Times. India’s Ambassador to France, DN Chatterjee, initiated contact suggesting Israeli help in propaganda, finance and arms, which the top officials of Israel positively obliged.
The report also describes Indira Gandhi approving the secret arms procurement through RAW using Liechtenstein as a channel. Despite its own arms shortages, Israel agreed to help India, giving a massive boost to the military infrastructure of India. As covered by the report, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir diverted weapons originally meant for Iran to India. Also, the covert transfer was reportedly managed through Shlomo Zabuldovich’s firm.
The help was significant because it came at a time when Israel was facing the after affect of the Six-Day War strain along with regional diplomatic isolation.
In the recent significant development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held wide-ranging talks with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, focusing on boosting bilateral ties in areas of defence and security, trade, technology and agriculture, a report by PTI news agency.
India and Israel are also likely to discuss the implementation of the India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and cooperation under the framework of I2U2 (India-Israel-UAE-USA).
Notably, PM Modi landed in Israel on Wednesday on a two-day visit with an aim to impart a new momentum to the bilateral ties, the PTI report said.
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