India – Israel relationship at a glance

India – Israel relationship at a glance

Context

•  India – Israel relationship taking new dimensions

A brief view on India-Israel friendship

• India recognized Israel only in 1950 but it was restricted only to consular relations due to geopolitical factors affecting India’s foreign policy.
• India developed full diplomatic relations with Israel only in 1992 with P.V. Narasimha Rao as India’s prime minister.
• Since the birth of Israel in 1948, whose admission to the UN India subsequently opposed, Israeli leaders still sought full diplomatic ties.
• With the Narasimha Rao government establishing full diplomatic ties in 1992, Israel pressed for full acknowledgement of bilateral relations on the international front.
• There was high drama during the first Indian high-level official visit on June 14, 2000 by then Home Minister L.K. Advani.
• The obvious feature of his visit was that all his security chiefs like the home secretary, joint secretary and the chiefs of the BSF, CBI and IB were in his entourage.
• The period just before and after Operation Blue Star saw close cooperation bloom between India and Israel.
• Israel helped India in all possible manner when VIP security when Western allies would not sell India modern equipment to counter threats from remote controlled devices.
• Israel helped India to discreetly counter aggressive Pakistani moves threatening India’s land and air security.

Recent Developments

• The significance of Mr. Modi’s visit to Israel, as the first Indian Prime Minister there, was the trip itself.
• The agreements signed during the visit, on water, agriculture, space and science and technology, are of great importance.
• Cooperation on cybersecurity issues constitutes a breakthrough of sorts, given that Israel tends to limit cooperation in this area to a few countries.