India has emerged as a surprising friend and strategic
partner to Israel. The Asian giant was formerly more closely allied with the
Soviet Union and the Arab world; in 1938, Mahatma Ghandi decried the imposition
of a Jewish state.
Publically, this anti-Israel sentiment remained until the
end of the cold war, although de-jure recognition was granted in 1950 along
with the establishment of an Israeli consulate in Mumbai. Normal diplomatic
relations were established in 1992 and since then, bilateral trade has flourished,
rising from US$200 million to around US$6 billion in 2013.
For a number of years, ties between the two were mostly kept
quiet for fear of antagonizing the Arab states and India’s large number of
Muslim voters that the previous Congress-led government relied on for
support. As little as two decades ago, India refused to even keep an
embassy in Israel.
However, the Indo-Israeli relationship has been steadily
growing since the 1960s, and now with the staunchly Hindu Narendra Modi-led
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in power, this long-running, quiet allegiance has
sprung back into the public eye.
Mr Modi sees Israel as an ally fighting a similar enemy:
Islamic terrorism. Since the end of the Second World War and the partition of
the Indian sub-continent, several armed conflicts have been fought with
Pakistan. In fact, India’s change of attitude towards Israel can be traced back
to the provision of Israeli weapons in 1999, which led India to victory in one
of these conflicts. Recently, India has been stepping up its border patrols.
Free from U.S. constraints, India has fast grown into the
world’s top buyer of Israeli weapons, with some US$662 million spent between
the BJP’s landslide May victory and November alone. The world’s biggest buyer
of arms intends to spend a further US$150 billion modernizing its military by
2027, and with the BJP being touted as the most pro-Israel government in
India’s history, this bodes well for the Jewish State, especially given the
increasingly chilly relationship with the U.S. (Israel was their 21st
largest supplier of goods imports in 2013).
Fast growing India has been keen to harness Israeli
agricultural and water expertise too; Prime Minister Modi visited Israel while
governor of Gujarat in 2006 to attend a bilateral summit on agricultural
cooperation and now some 2000 Gujarat farmers visit Israel every year for training
in advanced farming techniques. There are also 10 “centers for excellence”
operating throughout India providing training and Israeli know-how on such
techniques as vertical farming, drip irrigation and soil solarization.
Last September, Prime Minister Modi met his Israeli
counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN general assembly in New York – the
first meeting between the two countries’ leaders in a decade, sparking
expectations of a free trade deal being finalized next year. This would triple
trade between the two, reaffirming that Indo-Israeli relations are moving from
strength to strength.
By Benedict Lynn and Grace Tate
By Benedict Lynn and Grace Tate
India has emerged as a surprising friend and strategic partner to Israel. The Asian giant was formerly more closely allied with the Soviet Union and the Arab world; in 1938, Mahatma Ghandi decried the imposition of a Jewish state.
Publically, this anti-Israel sentiment remained until the end of the cold war, although de-jure recognition was granted in 1950 along with the establishment of an Israeli consulate in Mumbai. Normal diplomatic relations were established in 1992 and since then, bilateral trade has flourished, rising from US$200 million to around US$6 billion in 2013.
For a number of years, ties between the two were mostly kept quiet for fear of antagonizing the Arab states and India’s large number of Muslim voters that the previous Congress-led government relied on for support. As little as two decades ago, India refused to even keep an embassy in Israel.
However, the Indo-Israeli relationship has been steadily growing since the 1960s, and now with the staunchly Hindu Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in power, this long-running, quiet allegiance has sprung back into the public eye.
Mr Modi sees Israel as an ally fighting a similar enemy: Islamic terrorism. Since the end of the Second World War and the partition of the Indian sub-continent, several armed conflicts have been fought with Pakistan. In fact, India’s change of attitude towards Israel can be traced back to the provision of Israeli weapons in 1999, which led India to victory in one of these conflicts. Recently, India has been stepping up its border patrols.
Free from U.S. constraints, India has fast grown into the world’s top buyer of Israeli weapons, with some US$662 million spent between the BJP’s landslide May victory and November alone. The world’s biggest buyer of arms intends to spend a further US$150 billion modernizing its military by 2027, and with the BJP being touted as the most pro-Israel government in India’s history, this bodes well for the Jewish State, especially given the increasingly chilly relationship with the U.S. (Israel was their 21st largest supplier of goods imports in 2013).
Fast growing India has been keen to harness Israeli agricultural and water expertise too; Prime Minister Modi visited Israel while governor of Gujarat in 2006 to attend a bilateral summit on agricultural cooperation and now some 2000 Gujarat farmers visit Israel every year for training in advanced farming techniques. There are also 10 “centers for excellence” operating throughout India providing training and Israeli know-how on such techniques as vertical farming, drip irrigation and soil solarization.
Last September, Prime Minister Modi met his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN general assembly in New York – the first meeting between the two countries’ leaders in a decade, sparking expectations of a free trade deal being finalized next year. This would triple trade between the two, reaffirming that Indo-Israeli relations are moving from strength to strength.
- See more at: http://www.asiabriefing.com/news/2015/01/israels-economic-relationship-asia-pacific-part-2-india-asean/#sthash.TJza9yZ7.dpuf
India has emerged as a surprising friend and strategic partner to Israel. The Asian giant was formerly more closely allied with the Soviet Union and the Arab world; in 1938, Mahatma Ghandi decried the imposition of a Jewish state.
Publically, this anti-Israel sentiment remained until the end of the cold war, although de-jure recognition was granted in 1950 along with the establishment of an Israeli consulate in Mumbai. Normal diplomatic relations were established in 1992 and since then, bilateral trade has flourished, rising from US$200 million to around US$6 billion in 2013.
For a number of years, ties between the two were mostly kept quiet for fear of antagonizing the Arab states and India’s large number of Muslim voters that the previous Congress-led government relied on for support. As little as two decades ago, India refused to even keep an embassy in Israel.
However, the Indo-Israeli relationship has been steadily growing since the 1960s, and now with the staunchly Hindu Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in power, this long-running, quiet allegiance has sprung back into the public eye.
Mr Modi sees Israel as an ally fighting a similar enemy: Islamic terrorism. Since the end of the Second World War and the partition of the Indian sub-continent, several armed conflicts have been fought with Pakistan. In fact, India’s change of attitude towards Israel can be traced back to the provision of Israeli weapons in 1999, which led India to victory in one of these conflicts. Recently, India has been stepping up its border patrols.
Free from U.S. constraints, India has fast grown into the world’s top buyer of Israeli weapons, with some US$662 million spent between the BJP’s landslide May victory and November alone. The world’s biggest buyer of arms intends to spend a further US$150 billion modernizing its military by 2027, and with the BJP being touted as the most pro-Israel government in India’s history, this bodes well for the Jewish State, especially given the increasingly chilly relationship with the U.S. (Israel was their 21st largest supplier of goods imports in 2013).
Fast growing India has been keen to harness Israeli agricultural and water expertise too; Prime Minister Modi visited Israel while governor of Gujarat in 2006 to attend a bilateral summit on agricultural cooperation and now some 2000 Gujarat farmers visit Israel every year for training in advanced farming techniques. There are also 10 “centers for excellence” operating throughout India providing training and Israeli know-how on such techniques as vertical farming, drip irrigation and soil solarization.
Last September, Prime Minister Modi met his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN general assembly in New York – the first meeting between the two countries’ leaders in a decade, sparking expectations of a free trade deal being finalized next year. This would triple trade between the two, reaffirming that Indo-Israeli relations are moving from strength to strength.
- See more at: http://www.asiabriefing.com/news/2015/01/israels-economic-relationship-asia-pacific-part-2-india-asean/#sthash.TJza9yZ7.dpuf
By Benedict Lynn and Grace Tate
India has emerged as a surprising friend and strategic partner to Israel. The Asian giant was formerly more closely allied with the Soviet Union and the Arab world; in 1938, Mahatma Ghandi decried the imposition of a Jewish state.
Publically, this anti-Israel sentiment remained until the end of the cold war, although de-jure recognition was granted in 1950 along with the establishment of an Israeli consulate in Mumbai. Normal diplomatic relations were established in 1992 and since then, bilateral trade has flourished, rising from US$200 million to around US$6 billion in 2013.
For a number of years, ties between the two were mostly kept quiet for fear of antagonizing the Arab states and India’s large number of Muslim voters that the previous Congress-led government relied on for support. As little as two decades ago, India refused to even keep an embassy in Israel.
However, the Indo-Israeli relationship has been steadily growing since the 1960s, and now with the staunchly Hindu Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in power, this long-running, quiet allegiance has sprung back into the public eye.
Mr Modi sees Israel as an ally fighting a similar enemy: Islamic terrorism. Since the end of the Second World War and the partition of the Indian sub-continent, several armed conflicts have been fought with Pakistan. In fact, India’s change of attitude towards Israel can be traced back to the provision of Israeli weapons in 1999, which led India to victory in one of these conflicts. Recently, India has been stepping up its border patrols.
Free from U.S. constraints, India has fast grown into the world’s top buyer of Israeli weapons, with some US$662 million spent between the BJP’s landslide May victory and November alone. The world’s biggest buyer of arms intends to spend a further US$150 billion modernizing its military by 2027, and with the BJP being touted as the most pro-Israel government in India’s history, this bodes well for the Jewish State, especially given the increasingly chilly relationship with the U.S. (Israel was their 21st largest supplier of goods imports in 2013).
Fast growing India has been keen to harness Israeli agricultural and water expertise too; Prime Minister Modi visited Israel while governor of Gujarat in 2006 to attend a bilateral summit on agricultural cooperation and now some 2000 Gujarat farmers visit Israel every year for training in advanced farming techniques. There are also 10 “centers for excellence” operating throughout India providing training and Israeli know-how on such techniques as vertical farming, drip irrigation and soil solarization.
Last September, Prime Minister Modi met his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN general assembly in New York – the first meeting between the two countries’ leaders in a decade, sparking expectations of a free trade deal being finalized next year. This would triple trade between the two, reaffirming that Indo-Israeli relations are moving from strength to strength.
- See more at: http://www.asiabriefing.com/news/2015/01/israels-economic-relationship-asia-pacific-part-2-india-asean/#sthash.TJza9yZ7.dpuf
India has emerged as a surprising friend and strategic partner to Israel. The Asian giant was formerly more closely allied with the Soviet Union and the Arab world; in 1938, Mahatma Ghandi decried the imposition of a Jewish state.
Publically, this anti-Israel sentiment remained until the end of the cold war, although de-jure recognition was granted in 1950 along with the establishment of an Israeli consulate in Mumbai. Normal diplomatic relations were established in 1992 and since then, bilateral trade has flourished, rising from US$200 million to around US$6 billion in 2013.
For a number of years, ties between the two were mostly kept quiet for fear of antagonizing the Arab states and India’s large number of Muslim voters that the previous Congress-led government relied on for support. As little as two decades ago, India refused to even keep an embassy in Israel.
However, the Indo-Israeli relationship has been steadily growing since the 1960s, and now with the staunchly Hindu Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in power, this long-running, quiet allegiance has sprung back into the public eye.
Mr Modi sees Israel as an ally fighting a similar enemy: Islamic terrorism. Since the end of the Second World War and the partition of the Indian sub-continent, several armed conflicts have been fought with Pakistan. In fact, India’s change of attitude towards Israel can be traced back to the provision of Israeli weapons in 1999, which led India to victory in one of these conflicts. Recently, India has been stepping up its border patrols.
Free from U.S. constraints, India has fast grown into the world’s top buyer of Israeli weapons, with some US$662 million spent between the BJP’s landslide May victory and November alone. The world’s biggest buyer of arms intends to spend a further US$150 billion modernizing its military by 2027, and with the BJP being touted as the most pro-Israel government in India’s history, this bodes well for the Jewish State, especially given the increasingly chilly relationship with the U.S. (Israel was their 21st largest supplier of goods imports in 2013).
Fast growing India has been keen to harness Israeli agricultural and water expertise too; Prime Minister Modi visited Israel while governor of Gujarat in 2006 to attend a bilateral summit on agricultural cooperation and now some 2000 Gujarat farmers visit Israel every year for training in advanced farming techniques. There are also 10 “centers for excellence” operating throughout India providing training and Israeli know-how on such techniques as vertical farming, drip irrigation and soil solarization.
Last September, Prime Minister Modi met his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN general assembly in New York – the first meeting between the two countries’ leaders in a decade, sparking expectations of a free trade deal being finalized next year. This would triple trade between the two, reaffirming that Indo-Israeli relations are moving from strength to strength.
- See more at: http://www.asiabriefing.com/news/2015/01/israels-economic-relationship-asia-pacific-part-2-india-asean/#sthash.TJza9yZ7.dpuf
By Benedict Lynn and Grace Tate
India has emerged as a surprising friend and strategic partner to Israel. The Asian giant was formerly more closely allied with the Soviet Union and the Arab world; in 1938, Mahatma Ghandi decried the imposition of a Jewish state.
Publically, this anti-Israel sentiment remained until the end of the cold war, although de-jure recognition was granted in 1950 along with the establishment of an Israeli consulate in Mumbai. Normal diplomatic relations were established in 1992 and since then, bilateral trade has flourished, rising from US$200 million to around US$6 billion in 2013.
For a number of years, ties between the two were mostly kept quiet for fear of antagonizing the Arab states and India’s large number of Muslim voters that the previous Congress-led government relied on for support. As little as two decades ago, India refused to even keep an embassy in Israel.
However, the Indo-Israeli relationship has been steadily growing since the 1960s, and now with the staunchly Hindu Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in power, this long-running, quiet allegiance has sprung back into the public eye.
Mr Modi sees Israel as an ally fighting a similar enemy: Islamic terrorism. Since the end of the Second World War and the partition of the Indian sub-continent, several armed conflicts have been fought with Pakistan. In fact, India’s change of attitude towards Israel can be traced back to the provision of Israeli weapons in 1999, which led India to victory in one of these conflicts. Recently, India has been stepping up its border patrols.
Free from U.S. constraints, India has fast grown into the world’s top buyer of Israeli weapons, with some US$662 million spent between the BJP’s landslide May victory and November alone. The world’s biggest buyer of arms intends to spend a further US$150 billion modernizing its military by 2027, and with the BJP being touted as the most pro-Israel government in India’s history, this bodes well for the Jewish State, especially given the increasingly chilly relationship with the U.S. (Israel was their 21st largest supplier of goods imports in 2013).
Fast growing India has been keen to harness Israeli agricultural and water expertise too; Prime Minister Modi visited Israel while governor of Gujarat in 2006 to attend a bilateral summit on agricultural cooperation and now some 2000 Gujarat farmers visit Israel every year for training in advanced farming techniques. There are also 10 “centers for excellence” operating throughout India providing training and Israeli know-how on such techniques as vertical farming, drip irrigation and soil solarization.
Last September, Prime Minister Modi met his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN general assembly in New York – the first meeting between the two countries’ leaders in a decade, sparking expectations of a free trade deal being finalized next year. This would triple trade between the two, reaffirming that Indo-Israeli relations are moving from strength to strength.
- See more at: http://www.asiabriefing.com/news/2015/01/israels-economic-relationship-asia-pacific-part-2-india-asean/#sthash.TJza9yZ7.dpuf
India has emerged as a surprising friend and strategic partner to Israel. The Asian giant was formerly more closely allied with the Soviet Union and the Arab world; in 1938, Mahatma Ghandi decried the imposition of a Jewish state.
Publically, this anti-Israel sentiment remained until the end of the cold war, although de-jure recognition was granted in 1950 along with the establishment of an Israeli consulate in Mumbai. Normal diplomatic relations were established in 1992 and since then, bilateral trade has flourished, rising from US$200 million to around US$6 billion in 2013.
For a number of years, ties between the two were mostly kept quiet for fear of antagonizing the Arab states and India’s large number of Muslim voters that the previous Congress-led government relied on for support. As little as two decades ago, India refused to even keep an embassy in Israel.
However, the Indo-Israeli relationship has been steadily growing since the 1960s, and now with the staunchly Hindu Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in power, this long-running, quiet allegiance has sprung back into the public eye.
Mr Modi sees Israel as an ally fighting a similar enemy: Islamic terrorism. Since the end of the Second World War and the partition of the Indian sub-continent, several armed conflicts have been fought with Pakistan. In fact, India’s change of attitude towards Israel can be traced back to the provision of Israeli weapons in 1999, which led India to victory in one of these conflicts. Recently, India has been stepping up its border patrols.
Free from U.S. constraints, India has fast grown into the world’s top buyer of Israeli weapons, with some US$662 million spent between the BJP’s landslide May victory and November alone. The world’s biggest buyer of arms intends to spend a further US$150 billion modernizing its military by 2027, and with the BJP being touted as the most pro-Israel government in India’s history, this bodes well for the Jewish State, especially given the increasingly chilly relationship with the U.S. (Israel was their 21st largest supplier of goods imports in 2013).
Fast growing India has been keen to harness Israeli agricultural and water expertise too; Prime Minister Modi visited Israel while governor of Gujarat in 2006 to attend a bilateral summit on agricultural cooperation and now some 2000 Gujarat farmers visit Israel every year for training in advanced farming techniques. There are also 10 “centers for excellence” operating throughout India providing training and Israeli know-how on such techniques as vertical farming, drip irrigation and soil solarization.
Last September, Prime Minister Modi met his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN general assembly in New York – the first meeting between the two countries’ leaders in a decade, sparking expectations of a free trade deal being finalized next year. This would triple trade between the two, reaffirming that Indo-Israeli relations are moving from strength to strength.
- See more at: http://www.asiabriefing.com/news/2015/01/israels-economic-relationship-asia-pacific-part-2-india-asean/#sthash.TJza9yZ7.dpuf
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