Israel PM Naftali Bennett to visit India in 2022

ISRAELI prime minister Naftali Bennett, who came to power in June this year replacing the long-serving Benjamin Netanyahu and socialised well with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi at the COP26 climate summit earlier in November, will visit India next year and both countries are working on the tentative dates, the Israeli envoy to India told Asian News International.

“We are working on it (Israel PM’s visit to India). We don’t have a date yet but hopefully, it’s not at the beginning of the year. Maybe, in the middle of the (next) year,” Naor Gilon, ambassador of Israel to India, said.

Modi and Bennett met for the first time on the sidelines of COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, where besides discussing various topics linked to defence, environment and global and regional issues, the two leaders also caught the eyes for their light talks. Bennett was heard telling Modi at one point of time that the latter is the most popular man in Israel and invited him to join his party, a proposal that left the Indian prime minister burst out in laughter.

Ambassador Gilon also told the news outlet that India and Israel will soon conclude their free-trade agreement negotiations.

“We (India and Israel) discussed the free trade agreement and decided to try and finalize it by June. It can help trade between the countries, exchange of expert workers and other things,” he said.

Netanyahu visited India in January 2018 and shared a great chemistry with Modi.

India considers Israel an important ally as it depends heavily on the latter for high technology and defence equipment.

Indian external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar recently visited Israel during which the Jewish state joined the International Solar Alliance and both sides agreed on mutual recognition of coronavirus vaccines.

India’s chief of army staff MM Naravane is currently touring Israel.