Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will begin a two-day visit to Israel on Wednesday. Modi’s first journey to Israel was in 2017, when he was the primary Indian chief to ever go to the nation.
India was among the many international locations that opposed the creation of Israel in 1948, and for many years was probably the most forceful non-Arab critics of Israel’s insurance policies in direction of Palestinians. It solely established diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992, however since 2014, when Modi got here to energy, relations between the 2 international locations have flourished.
Right here is extra about what’s on the agenda for Modi’s go to, and why it’s important.
Who will Modi meet, and what’s going to they speak about?
Modi is anticipated to land on the Ben Gurion worldwide airport exterior Tel Aviv at 12:45pm native time (10:45 GMT).
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is anticipated to welcome Modi on the airport, as he did throughout the Indian premier’s 2017 go to. The 2 leaders are scheduled to carry talks shortly after.
Then, at 4:30pm (14:30 GMT), Modi is scheduled to handle the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem. He then returns to Tel Aviv for the night time.
On the morning of February 26, Modi is scheduled to go to the Yad Vashem museum, a memorial to Holocaust victims, earlier than assembly Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Modi and Netanyahu will then meet once more and oversee the signing of agreements between the 2 international locations, earlier than Modi departs Israel within the afternoon.
General, Modi and Netanyahu intention to make use of this go to to bolster strategic financial and defence agreements between India and Israel, officers from either side have stated.
“We don’t compete, we reasonably complement one another,” JP Singh, India’s ambassador to Israel, informed state broadcaster All India Radio on Monday, talking of relations with Israel. “Israel is de facto good at innovation, science and expertise. Due to this fact, there will probably be a number of dialogue on AI, cybersecurity and quantum.”
The 2 international locations signed a brand new Bilateral Funding Treaty in September final 12 months, changing the 1996 funding treaty, to supply “certainty and safety” to buyers from each international locations. They’re additionally aiming to improve present bilateral safety agreements at this assembly.
In a video posted on the Israeli Embassy’s social media channels on Monday, Israel’s ambassador to India, Reuven Azar, stated: “Our financial partnership is gaining actual momentum. We signed a bilateral funding treaty, and we’re shifting ahead to signal a free commerce settlement, hopefully this 12 months.”
Azar stated that Israel desires to encourage Indian infrastructure firms to return to Israel to construct and put money into the nation.
He added: “We are going to deepen our defence relationship by updating our safety agreements.”
In an X publish of his personal on Sunday, Netanyahu wrote that he’s wanting ahead to greeting Modi in Jerusalem.
“We’re companions in innovation, safety, and a shared strategic imaginative and prescient. Collectively, we’re constructing an axis of countries dedicated to stability and progress,” he wrote.
“From AI to regional cooperation, our partnership continues to achieve new heights,” Netanyahu added.
How are India-Israel relations?
Relations between India and Israel have improved exponentially through the years. Whereas nonetheless underneath British rule within the Twenties and Thirties, India strongly recognized with the Palestinian battle for independence.
In 1917, the UK signed the Balfour Declaration, promising Jews who had been displaced from Europe because of Adolf Hitler’s oppression a homeland within the British Mandate in Palestine. This was opposed by many countries, together with India, which was preventing British colonialism on the time.
“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the identical sense that England belongs to the English, or France to the French,” Mahatma Gandhi, India’s most distinguished freedom fighter who’s revered as the daddy of the nation, wrote in an article in his weekly newspaper Harijan on November 26, 1938.
India was among the many nations against the creation of Israel in 1948. In 1949, India additionally voted towards Israel’s UN membership. Whereas it recognised Israel as a state in 1950, it was not till 1992 that the 2 formalised diplomatic relations, and financial relations step by step grew over the next twenty years.
Since Modi grew to become India’s chief in 2014, there was a major shift within the relationship between India and Israel. 9 years in the past, Modi was the primary Indian prime minister ever to go to Israel.
India is at present Israel’s second-largest buying and selling companion in Asia, after China. In keeping with India’s Ministry of Exterior Affairs, commerce jumped from $200m in 1992 to $6.5bn in 2024.
India’s most important exports to Israel embrace pearls, valuable stones, automotive diesel, chemical compounds, equipment, and electrical gear; imports embrace petroleum, chemical equipment and transport gear.
Azad Essa, a senior reporter at Center East Eye and creator of the 2023 guide Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel, informed Al Jazeera that Modi’s go to to Israel reveals how far India’s relations with Israel have developed over the previous decade.
“Whereas a partnership existed, it was much more restricted previous to Modi. [New] Delhi has now emerged as Israel’s strongest non-Western ally, a lot in order that it’s now thought of a ‘particular relationship’, rooted in strategic cooperation and ideological convergence,” Essa stated.
“This go to will probably be Netanyahu’s alternative to supply appreciation to Modi, and will probably be utilized by him to indicate Israelis that he’s a well-respected and widespread chief within the World South.”
Beneath Modi, India has develop into Israel’s prime arms buyer. And in 2024, throughout Israel’s genocidal warfare on Gaza, Indian arms companies equipped Israel with rockets and explosives, in keeping with an Al Jazeera investigation.
Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) envisions India as a Hindu homeland, echoing Israel’s self-image as a Jewish state. Each India and Israel body “Islamic terrorism” as a key menace, a label critics say is used to justify wider anti-Muslim insurance policies.
“The alliance between India and Israel isn’t just about weapon gross sales or commerce. It’s about India’s open embrace of authoritarianism and militarism in constructing a supremacist state in Israel’s picture,” Essa stated.
“It’s also a narrative about how safety, nationalism and democratic language can be utilized to justify and normalise more and more intolerant insurance policies, and this has implications for democracies all over the place.”
Why is that this go to important?
Modi’s go to comes at a time of rising and sophisticated geopolitical tensions in and across the Center East.
Regardless of the nice and cozy relations between the 2 international locations in current a long time, Modi’s journey comes only a week after India joined greater than 100 international locations in condemning Israel’s de facto enlargement within the occupied West Financial institution. New Delhi signed the assertion on February 18 – a day later than most – after initially showing hesitant.
This week, Netanyahu claimed that he plans to kind a brand new regional bloc of nations, which he termed a “hexagon” alliance, to face towards “radical” Sunni and Shia-majority nations.
On Sunday, Netanyahu stated this alliance would come with Israel, India, Greece and Cyprus, together with different unnamed Arab, African and Asian states. None of those governments has formally endorsed this plan, together with India.
Analysts stated Modi’s go to will probably be considered by many as an endorsement of Israeli insurance policies, nevertheless.
“The timing of the go to is notable as a result of it comes at a time when Netanyahu has misplaced immense credibility world wide, and to have the chief of the world’s so-called largest democracy visiting Israel and exhibiting affection to Netanyahu, who has a warrant in his title from the Worldwide Felony Court docket, is a ringing endorsement of him and Israel’s insurance policies,” Essa stated.
Modi’s go to additionally comes at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and america.
India and Iran have lengthy had a cooperative relationship. After Modi visited Iran in 2016, the 2 international locations signed a significant deal, permitting India to develop the strategically situated port of Chabahar on Iran’s southeastern coast. Nonetheless, after the US imposed further sanctions on Iran final 12 months and threatened to penalise all international locations that do enterprise with Tehran, India has reportedly began shifting out of Chabahar.
In June 2025, India did not join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO’s) condemnation of Israel’s assaults on Iran throughout the 12-day war between Iran and Israel. Nonetheless, it did be part of a later condemnation by the BRICS grouping of main rising economies of the Israeli and US assaults on Iran.
The US, which has been making use of its personal stress on India over the previous 12 months in retaliation for its buy of Russian oil, is building up an enormous array of army belongings within the Arabian Sea, near Iran, as President Donald Trump will increase stress on Iran to agree to a deal over its nuclear programme and inventory of ballistic missiles.
Trump stated final Friday that he was considering a limited strike on Iran if Tehran doesn’t attain a take care of the US. “I assume I can say I’m contemplating that,” he informed reporters.
Iran has stated it’s in search of a diplomatic resolution, however will defend itself if Washington resorts to army motion.
Israel will possible be a front-line participant in any escalation that may observe from US strikes or Iranian retaliation, analysts say.
