PM Narendra Modi will meet Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Glasgow next week. (File)
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will meet PM Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow next week, a senior official said in Jerusalem on Friday.
The Israeli Prime Minister's media adviser, in a communication, said that Prime Minister Bennett would be meeting several world leaders, including Prime Minister Modi.
"On Monday, November 1, 2021, Prime Minister Bennett will address participants in the conference and present the Israeli concept on dealing with the climate crisis. The Prime Minister will also participate in the opening ceremony of the conference to be hosted by British Prime Minister Johnson and the reception to be hosted by British Crown Prince Charles," it said.
The meeting between PM Modi and Prime Minister Bennett comes after External Affairs Minister S.Jaishankar, during his visit to Israel last week, extended an invitation to the Israeli premier on behalf of PM Modi to visit India.
PM Modi's invitation to Naftali Bennett grabbed headlines in Israel as it was interpreted as a signal from New Delhi that it was comfortable working with the new government in the Jewish state.
As per local media reports in Israel, Prime Minister Bennett is likely to visit India next year.
Given the widely publicised "close chemistry" between former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PM Modi, when asked by a prominent TV anchor as to how the change in government would impact ties between the two countries, Mr Jaishankar, during his five day visit to Israel, said that the relations had evolved and reached such a "high level of comfort" that it "has gone beyond personalities".
"I think we have as countries, as polities, as societies, reached a high level of comfort. So in a sense it is a proof of the success of everybody who has contributed to that change. That the relationship has gone beyond personalities in a way," Mr Jaishankar told Channel 12.
However, he also acknowledged the important role played by such actors (personalities) saying, "And we should be appreciative of personalities that make that happen".
India and Israel elevated bilateral relations to a strategic partnership during the historic visit of Prime Minister Modi to Israel in July 2017.
Since then, the relationship between the two countries has focused on expanding knowledge-based partnership, which includes collaboration in innovation and research, including boosting the 'Make in India' initiative.
One of the main elements of former Prime Minister Netanyahu's campaign during the four elections in nearly two years, before he lost power in June this year, centered around his personal chemistry with the world leaders.
Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party headquarters' walls once carried pictures of him with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and PM Modi on three different sides touting his closeness with these leaders.
The Likud party tried to hard sell his image as the "tallest leader" whose global image could not be managed by anybody else, hence the one who could protect Israel's interests the best at the global stage.
A picture of PM Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu entering the sea barefoot during the latter's visit to Israel in July 2017 is etched in public memory in both India and Israel.
The new government in Israel seems to be working to dispel this notion spread by Benjamin Netanyahu's team by demonstrating how the global leaders had accepted the change in the Jewish state and were keen to work with the new dispensation.
It started with showing how Israel's closest ally, the United States, with whom Benjamin Netanyahu had rather strained ties, was welcoming of the change and then moved on to show similar sentiments from others, including Vladimir Putin.
Naftali Bennett is also likely to meet British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during the UN Climate Change Conference.
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