Indian PM set to make historic first visit to Israel
Narendra Modi to arrive in the coming year; Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj also to come to the region soon
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Israel during the coming year, in what will be the first state visit by an Indian prime minister to the Jewish state. No firm date has yet been fixed for the trip.
The visit was announced by Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj, who revealed she is also planning on traveling to the region in the near future, with stops in Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. Swaraj said the purpose of the tour was to strengthen India’s ties with regional governments.
The Modi trip would culminate a steady improvement in bilateral ties since Israel and India formalized full diplomatic relations in 1992.
However, it would not be the Indian politician’s first time in Israel; Modi visited Israel during his term as chief minister of Gurajat province, a position he held from 2001 to 2014.
Modi, who was elected prime minister last year, has made developing cooperation with Israel a focus for his government’s diplomatic policies.
In February Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon met Modi in Delhi, marking a new phase in which previously hushed-up defense deals between the countries were brought out into the open. Israel and India have also signed recent deals on agriculture and cyber-security projects.
Last September, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a meeting with Modi in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting, marking the first such get-together of Israeli and Indian leaders in over a decade.
In December, The Hindu newspaper reported that Modi was looking to move away from India’s pro-Palestinian stance in the United Nations and instead leaning toward abstaining.
When Netanyahu was reelected in March, Modi sent him a message of congratulations in both Hebrew and English via his Twitter account. “Congratulations my friend Bibi @netanyahu! Recall our New York meeting last September warmly,” he wrote.
Swaraj, 62, India’s first female foreign minister, called Israel “a reliable partner” in 2008, according an April report from the Economic Times. She was speaking to counter left-wing opposition to the Israel-India diplomatic relationship.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
