The reason of the Indian Prime Minister visit to Israel

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Israel on Wednesday for a two-day visit aimed at strengthening ties with the key trade and defense partner, despite criticism in India of the rapprochement between the two countries.

In recent years, New Delhi has gradually strengthened its partnership with Israel in the fields of defense, agriculture, technology, and cybersecurity.

The Indian giant Adani operates the port of Haifa in northern Israel, while the Indian military has supplied Israeli drones that New Delhi has used extensively during the 2025 military confrontation with Pakistan.

At the same time, India maintains strong ties with the Gulf countries, as well as with Israel’s arch-enemy Iran, leading the Chabahar port project, a vital trade outlet to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

“Our two countries have a strong and multifaceted strategic partnership,” Modi said in a statement before his departure, noting that he would meet his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as President Isaac Herzog, and address the Israeli Knesset.

The Indian government announced the start of talks on Monday in New Delhi on a free trade agreement between the two countries, pointing out that the total volume of bilateral trade exchange reached $3.62 billion in the period 2024-2025.

Narendra Modi is expected to discuss with the Israeli prime minister ways to enhance cooperation between the two countries.

India and Israel have had formal diplomatic relations since 1992.

These ties have been strengthened since Modi, a Hindu nationalist, came to power in 2014.

Both Modi and Netanyahu, both of whom belong to the right, consider themselves friends.

In September 2023, New Delhi unveiled its ambitious project to create an economic corridor connecting India to the Middle East and Europe via railways, ports, power lines, internet networks, and oil pipelines.

However, this initiative has been suspended since Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, which sparked a bloody two-year war in the Gaza Strip.

Priyanka Gandhi, a senior member of the Indian National Congress party, expressed her hope on X that Modi would refer to the “killing of thousands of innocent men, women and children in Gaza” during his speech to the Israeli Knesset.