Prime Minister Modi’s historic visit to Israel has taken diplomatic relations to next level
The depth of a bilateral relationship between nations can be judged in two ways. The first, by the extent of people-to-people and leadership warmth, and second, by the scope of cooperation in multiple sectors. On both these parameters, it can be confidently said that India and Israel are so close to each other that an attempt to measure the proximity's intensity might prove insufficient. Narendra Modi's historic visit to Israel — the first by any Indian Prime Minister — provided ample proof of this assertion. Modi and his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu, met and treated each other like bosom friends — they repeatedly referred to each other as “my friend” and “my dear friend” — the people of Israel were ecstatic over the Indian leader's trip, and as many as seven agreements were inked during the occasion, covering a wide range of areas, from space exploration to irrigation to cyber security.
The India-Israel tie was elevated to a ‘strategic partnership' level; India has vowed to learn from the Israelis the technology to clean rivers and make their waters fit for human consumption, enhance irrigation potential, understand the success mantra for entrepreneurship and start-ups, and evolve international quality standards. On its part, Israel has committed itself to not just Make in India but also Make with India (in Prime Minister Netanyahu's words), provide cutting-edge defence technology and work closely in counter-terrorism measures.
The overarching importance of the Indian Prime Minister's visit has been that the India-Israel relationship is definitively out of the closet. Over the decades, since independence, India had publicly maintained distance from the Jewish nation for a variety of unjustified reasons — both international and domestic. And yet, New Delhi continued to slyly do business with Israel when it fell into trouble, especially in defence matters. It must be said to Tel Aviv's credit that it did not hesitate to come to India's help despite the public treatment. Back in 1965, after the Chinese humiliation, New Delhi had approached Israel for mortars and small arms, and received it. The Israeli help in the 1971 war and the 1999 Kargil conflict have been extensively recorded, though the details remain a matter of speculation because India never officially acknowledged the support. In fact, even though full diplomatic relations were established between the two countries in 1992 (during Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao's tenure) and defence cooperation was escalated, the secretive nature of the relationship remained in place. Prime Minister Modi's visit has ripped off this facade.
The deepening India-Israel bilateral has expectedly rattled certain nations and is likely to bring profound changes in the geo-strategic balance. Sections in the Pakistani establishment even see the Research & Analysis Wing and Mossad coming together to destroy the Islamic world, and particularly Pakistan! In the larger context, US President Donald Trump's promise to ratchet up his resolve to deal with terror-sponsoring nations, the US-Japan-India Naval exercises, and now the fresh impetus to India-Israel defence and strategic relations, taken together, will work in India's favour.