India’s Modi visits Israel: What’s on the agenda, and why it matters | International Trade News

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will begin a two-day visit to Israel on Wednesday. Modi’s first trip to Israel was in 2017, when he was the first Indian leader to ever visit the country.

India was one of the countries that opposed the creation of Israel in 1948, and for decades was one of the strongest non-Arab critics of Israel’s policy towards Palestinians. It first established diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992, but since 2014, when Modi came to power, relations between the two countries have flourished.

Here’s more on what’s on the agenda for Modi’s visit, and why it’s important.

Who will Modi meet, and what will they talk about?

Modi is expected to land at Ben Gurion International Airport outside Tel Aviv at 12:45 local time (10:45 GMT).

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to welcome Modi at the airport, as he did during the Indian Prime Minister’s visit in 2017. The two leaders are scheduled to hold talks soon after.

Then, at 4:30 pm (14:30 GMT), Modi is scheduled to address the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem. He then returns to Tel Aviv for the night.

On the morning of February 26, Modi is scheduled to visit the Yad Vashem museum, a memorial to Holocaust victims, before meeting Israeli President Isaac Herzog. Modi and Netanyahu will then meet again and oversee the signing of agreements between the two countries, before Modi leaves Israel in the afternoon.

Overall, Modi and Netanyahu intend to use this visit to strengthen strategic economic and defense agreements between India and Israel, officials from both sides said.

“We are not competing, rather we are complementing each other,” JP Singh, India’s ambassador to Israel, told state broadcaster All India Radio on Monday. relations with Israel. “Israel is really good at innovation, science and technology. That’s why there will be a lot of discussions about AI, cyber security and quantum.”

The two countries signed a new Bilateral Investment Treaty in September last year, replacing the 1996 investment treaty, to provide “certainty and protection” to investors from both countries. They also intend to upgrade existing bilateral security agreements at this meeting.

In a video posted on the Israeli Embassy’s social media channels on Monday, Israel’s ambassador to India, Reuven Azar, said: “Our economic partnership is gaining real momentum. We have signed a bilateral investment treaty, and we are moving forward to sign a free trade agreement, hopefully this year.”

Azar said that Israel wants to encourage Indian infrastructure companies to come to Israel to build and invest in the country.

He added: “We will deepen our defense relationship by updating our security agreements.”

Netanyahu wrote in an X post of his own on Sunday that he was looking forward to greeting Modi in Jerusalem.

“We are partners in innovation, security and a shared strategic vision. Together we are building an axis of nations committed to stability and progress,” he wrote.

“From AI to regional cooperation, our partnership continues to reach new heights,” Netanyahu added.

How is the relationship between India and Israel?

Relations between India and Israel have improved exponentially over the years. While still under British rule in the 1920s and 1930s, India identified strongly with the Palestinian struggle for independence.

In 1917, the United Kingdom signed the Balfour Declaration, which promised Jews displaced from Europe due to Adolf Hitler’s oppression a homeland in the British Mandate of Palestine. It was opposed by many nations, including India, which was fighting British colonialism at the time.

“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense as England belongs to the English, or France to the French,” wrote Mahatma Gandhi, India’s most prominent freedom fighter who is revered as the father of the nation, in an article in his weekly newspaper Harijan on November 26, 1938.

India was one of the nations that opposed the creation of Israel in 1948. In 1949, India also voted against Israel’s UN membership. While it recognized Israel as a state in 1950, it was not until 1992 that the two formalized diplomatic relations and economic relations grew steadily over the next two decades.

Since Modi became India’s leader in 2014, there has been a big shift in the relationship between India and Israel. Nine years ago, Modi was the first Indian Prime Minister ever to visit Israel.

India is currently Israel’s second largest trading partner in Asia, after China. According to India’s Ministry of External Affairs, trade has risen from $200 million in 1992 to $6.5 billion in 2024.

India’s main exports to Israel include pearls, precious stones, motor diesel, chemicals, machinery and electrical equipment; Imports include petroleum, chemical machinery and transport equipment.

Azad Essa, a senior reporter at Middle East Eye and author of the 2023 book Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel, told Al Jazeera that Modi’s visit to Israel shows how far India’s relations with Israel have evolved over the past decade.

“While a partnership existed, it was much more limited before Modi. (New) Delhi has now emerged as Israel’s strongest non-Western ally, so much so that it is now considered a ‘special relationship’, rooted in strategic cooperation and ideological convergence,” Essa said.

“This visit will be Netanyahu’s opportunity to show appreciation to Modi, and will be used by him to show Israelis that he is a respected and popular leader in the Global South.”

Under Modi, India has become Israel’s best arms customer. And in 2024, during Israel’s genocidal war against Gaza, Indian arms firms supplied Israel with rockets and explosives, according to a Al Jazeera investigates.

Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) envisions India as a Hindu homeland, echoes Israel’s self-image as a Jewish state. Both India and Israel cite “Islamic terrorism” as a key threat, a label critics say is used to justify broader anti-Muslim policies.

“The alliance between India and Israel is not just about arms sales or trade. It is about India’s open embrace of authoritarianism and militarism in building a supremacist state in Israel’s image,” Essa said.

“It is also a story about how security, nationalism and democratic language can be used to justify and normalize increasingly illiberal policies, and this has implications for democracies everywhere.”

Why is this visit significant?

Modi’s visit comes at a time of rising and complex geopolitical tensions in and around the Middle East.

Despite the warm relations between the two countries in recent decades, Modi’s trip comes just a week after India joined more than 100 countries in condemning Israel’s de facto expansion into the occupied West Bank. New Delhi signed the declaration on February 18 – a day later than most – after initially appearing reluctant.

Netanyahu claimed this week that he plans to form a new regional bloc of countries, which he called a “hexagon” allianceto stand up against “radical” Sunni and Shia majority nations.

Netanyahu said on Sunday that this alliance would include Israel, India, Greece and Cyprus, along with other unnamed Arab, African and Asian states. None of these governments have officially endorsed this plan, including India.

Analysts said that Modi’s visit, however, would be seen by many as an endorsement of Israeli policy.

“The timing of the visit is noteworthy because it comes at a time when Netanyahu has lost tremendous credibility around the world, and for the leader of the world’s so-called largest democracy to visit Israel and show affection to Netanyahu, who has a warrant in his name from the International Criminal Court, is a resounding endorsement of him and Israel’s policies,” Essa said.

Modi’s visit also comes at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the United States.

India and Iran have long had a cooperative relationship. After Modi visited Iran in 2016, the two countries signed a major agreement allowing India to develop the strategically located port of Chabahar on Iran’s southeastern coast. However, after the US imposed additional sanctions on Iran last year and threatened to penalize all countries doing business with Tehran, India reportedly started moving out of Chabahar.

In June 2025, India did not join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) condemnation of Israel’s attacks on Iran during the 12 day war between Iran and Israel. However, it joined a later condemnation by the BRICS grouping of major emerging economies of the Israeli and US attacks on Iran.

The US, which has exerted its own pressure on India over the past year in retaliation for its purchase of Russian oil, is build up a large array of military assets in the Arabian Sea, near Iran, as President Donald Trump increases pressure on Iran to agree to an agreement about its nuclear program and stockpile of ballistic missiles.

Trump said last Friday that he was consider a limited strike on Iran if Tehran does not reach an agreement with the US. “I think I can say I’m considering it,” he told reporters.

Iran has said it is seeking a diplomatic solution but will defend itself if Washington turns to military action.

Israel is likely to be a front-line participant in any escalation that could follow from US strikes or Iranian retaliation, analysts say.