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01-03-2026
JERUSALEM/ NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi says India and Israel will collaborate more closely on defence technology while pursuing a free trade agreement, as he wrapped up a controversial two-day visit.
Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu said at a joint news conference in Jerusalem on Thursday that they would also foster collaboration on technologies, such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, as their countries concluded more than a dozen bilateral agreements.
“The future belongs to those who innovate and Israel and India are bent on innovation,” said Netanyahu. “We’re proud ancient civilizations, very proud of our past but absolutely determined to seize the future, and we can do it better together.”
A joint statement highlighted cooperation in the field of “horizon scanning”, describing it as a mechanism that “helps identify emerging global trends in areas like technology, economy and society, by leveraging data”.
Israel also agreed to allow 50,000 more Indian nationals into the country, where tens of thousands of South Asians have filled construction and caregiving jobs since new restrictions were placed on Palestinian workers at the start of its war on Gaza.
Strategic embrace
Modi’s visit, his second since he took office in 2014, has drawn criticism at home, signaling an ongoing expansion of India’s strategic embrace of Israel amid ongoing tensions over Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza, which has killed more than 72,000 people.
Confirming their growing ties, the leaders’ joint statement referenced the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and an April 2025 attack on tourists and civilians in Pahalgam, in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
“Terrorism cannot be accepted in any form or expression,” said Modi, who has historically supported the establishment of a Palestinian state yet has sometimes abstained from criticism of Israel in international forums, including the United Nations.
Earlier this month, India was among the countries that condemned Israeli measures to effectively deepen its control over the occupied West Bank.
Both countries also lauded United States President Donald Trump’s plan to advance the “ceasefire” in the Gaza Strip.
Benjamin Netanyahu and Narendra Modi shared a conspicuously warm embrace as the Indian prime minister stepped off Air India One at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Wednesday, a moment that captured the political intimacy between the two leaders. Over the course of his two-day visit, the two sides are expected to sign several agreements, further consolidating an already deepening partnership between Israel and India.
Modi has long been a driving force behind this closeness. His 2017 trip marked the first visit to Israel by an Indian prime minister and signaled a decisive shift in bilateral relations. In an Instagram post on Wednesday, he called this trip a “historic visit”, later receiving a standing ovation at a reception at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, where Netanyahu declared, “This is true friendship, between two leaders, between two countries, and between two ancient nations.”
Of course, this friendship does not just hinge on the deals and agreements the two leaders are set to sign. While welcoming Modi on the tarmac at Ben Gurion airport, Sara Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister’s wife, wore orange/saffron, the color of Hindutva. The Israeli prime minister also pointed out that her outfit matched the orange pocket square Modi was wearing. The prominence of Hindutva’s signature color was difficult to ignore and suggested a clear ease with, and affirmation of, the ideological framework underpinning Modi’s politics. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
