India-Israel Relationship over the years!
“’I’ FOR ‘I’ IS INDIA FOR ISRAEL, AND ‘I’ WITH ‘I’ IS INDIA WITH ISRAEL”
As soon as the quote went round, there were tons of articles being published about the relationship India has with Israel. Recently on 4th July,’17 Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi visited his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and other dignitaries.
Looking back at the history India-Israel relationship developed in 1992 and since then their bilateral relations has blossomed at the economic, military, agricultural and political levels.
Relation between Jurusalem(capital of Israel) and New Delhi(capital of India) were not always warm. While both countries gained Independence within a month of each other, India in 1947 and Israel in 1948 — India as a leader of NAM maintained a close relationship with Arab world and Soviet Union, Israel linked ties with the U.S. and Western Europe. The state of Israel was fully recognized on 17th September’1950.
In 1953, Israel was granted permission to open a consulate in Mumbai. Nehru government did not want to pursue full diplomatic relations with them, as India supported Palestine cause(Israel-Palestine conflict began in 20th century on the issues such as mutual recognition , border securities and the like) and thought it would estranged the relations with Arab world.
India publically kept a distance from Israel until late 1980’s but in the coming years, there was in fact a great deal of bilateral activities between the two countries. India fully established its diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992 only after Palestine President Yaser Arafat on board. There were two reasons for this-
- The first was state of Israel and Arafat’s Palestine Liberation organization recognized each other for the first time.
- The other was that there was a pressure from the US as India needed a global interface for its economy after the economic liberalization of 1991 as well as for the defense needs after the supplier USSR collapsed. It was America who asked India to accommodate Israel in its foreign policy.
Ariel Sharon became the first Prime Minister to visit India in 2003 wherein The Delhi Statement of Co-operation was signed. India–Israel co-operation increased drastically in 2014, since the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Israel exported $662 million worth of Israeli weapons and defense items to India as Israel was considered to be the second largest defense supplier to India. During Mr Modi’s recent visit to Israel, they announced partnership between these two countries and 7 agreements signed including water management, agriculture, space, technology and agreed to create a Technology Innovation Fund worth $40 million for research and Development in industrial sector.
Modi also issued OVERSEAS CITIZEN OF INDIA CARDS to the Indian origin who have done compulsory military service in Israel. The cards ease the difficulty of finding employment opportunities and other facilities.
The three components of India’s co-operation with Israel is of WATER, AGRICULTURE AND DEFENSE.
In terms of WATER and AGRICULTURE, Israel has a foremost technology in areas such as Rain Harvesting, use of oceanic water and using this for irrigation in dry areas. Israel is now a water surplus state and has established the water desalination technique. India is characterized by disruptive monsoon and deteriorating agriculture sector, the use of salt water from Israel is of immense importance. But the fact that India fails to use salt water efficiently is because — first the desalination plants requires a massive amount of water and then there is the misuse of desalination plant discharge which creates a havoc in the coastal areas.
In terms of DEFENSE, the rise of Islamic Extremist Terrorists in both the nations has generated a strong alliance between them. India recently launched a military satellite for Israel through Indian Space Research Organization.
What we fail to understand is that India is treated to constant prate on how every single purchase from Israel will become a decisive factor or a key factor. Israel doesn’t produce complete military system, it’s a supplier and maker of parts and is expertise in small and medium range. It is an extremely complex process and India has no knowledge and experience in this field. This is the reason Israel refuses to share source-codes for any product that has to be integrated with Russian system (we cannot forget that Russia is the largest supplier of defense to India) for operational security reasons.
The way forward is — in the arena of methodological approach to population control and implicit methods of warfare (discussing the issue instead of a war) are important for India. In the Agricultural sphere, Israel should co-operate with India and find ways to overcome shortcoming’s like irrigational and agricultural techniques. In the area of water, India should solve problems including land, electricity, fishing and farming.
The story of India- Israel relationship is blooming. Let’s hope that Mr. Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel can enliven to its full potential.