Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen To Visit India This Month

In a significant visit, Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Eli Cohen will be here in New Delhi in the Month of May this year as both countries celebrate thirty years of diplomatic relations.

The visit comes after Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat, who travelled to India this year in April with a large business delegation on a four-day official visit to strengthen bilateral ties in common areas of interest, automotive technologies, and fintech. The former mayor of Jerusalem also visited Delhi and Mumbai.

In late March, Israeli Knesset speaker Amir Ohana too paid an official visit to India where an MoU on the first cooperation and exchange of information agreement between the parliaments of Israel and India was signed. The visit comes at a time when Israel is celebrating its 75th Anniversary of Independence.

In an event marked here to celebrate it, Israeli Ambassador to India Naor Gilon hailed the ties that the two countries share and said that he is looking forward to hosting the Foreign Minister soon.

"These days we are fortunate to have a series of high-level visits from Israel to India. In late March, we had the visit of the Israel speaker of the parliament Knesset, In mid -April, we had the first-ever visit of the Minister of Economy and we are expecting to host soon the Minister of Foreign Affairs and later in the year, hopefully also our Prime Minister", said the envoy.

"What is common in these visits is that they return impressed by the strong sympathy and friendship between India and Israel, as well as the understanding of the growing importance of India to Israel and to the world", he added.

Speaking about the India - Israel ties, the envoy said further that the cooperation between the two countries is built on deep trust which is evident by the cooperation in the most sensitive fields.

"I've never experienced before such deep appreciation, affection and friendship towards Israel as I do wherever I go in India. A similar sentiment towards India exists in the hearts of many Israelis. The cooperation between India and Israel is based on deep trust. This is evident by the wide fields of cooperation including in the most sensitive ones", said the Israeli Envoy.

While speaking to ANI, the envoy also said that the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit India by the end of this year.

"We can expect the Prime Minister of Israel to visit India by the end of this year... India and Israel have wonderful ties in all fields, it is based on the people-to-people element. Our relation now also has the government-to-government element," Israeli Ambassador Naor Gilon said while speaking to ANI.

"If we take one example of wonderful cooperation that we have look at our commercial relations. We started full diplomatic relations for 30 years. This is a symbol of how we could have developed it so fast, so high," he added.

"Technological cooperation, people-to-people cooperation," the Israeli Ambassador added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and the people of Israel on their 75th Anniversary of Independence. India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar paid an official visit to Israel on October 17-21, 2021, at the invitation of the Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Israel Yair Lapid.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi undertook a historic first-ever visit to Israel by an Indian Prime Minister on July 4-6, 2017 during which the relationship was upgraded to a strategic partnership. The then Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu made a return visit to India on January 14-19, 2018.

India and Israel have established bilateral consultation mechanisms in all sectors of collaboration, including water, agriculture, counter-terrorism, and defence.

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