India had the right to do what it did by enacting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and it was not for the European Parliament to comment on it, Consul General of Israel for South India Dana Kursh said here on Tuesday.
“India as a sovereign nation has the right in enacting the CAA. It is not for the European Parliament to decide what India should or not do. India’s sovereignty is to be respected and she knows how to protect her people,” she told journalists at a press meet held ahead of the inauguration of an Indo-Israel International Joint Conference on Sustainable Cities at the Kumaraguru College of Technology.
The Israeli Consul General was responding to a question on the European Parliament’s move to discuss a resolution critical of the CAA.
Ms. Kursh said her country and India had faced similar situations in international fora and were wrongly accused of decisions or actions that they took as sovereign nations, be it the United Nations or International Court of Justice.But her country was solidly behind India and the Israeli support was bipartisan as the case in India as well.
The trade relationship between India and Israel was growing but she did not have the numbers. And, between Israel and South India the trade was around $ 400 mn in 2018. To further the trade, the two countries were discussing having a free trade agreement.
“So far the two sides have had 13 rounds of discussion. In India signing the agreement is a complicated thing just as it is so in her country as both are vibrant democracies. I expect a forward movement in this regard once a new government is in place in Tel Aviv.”
But even without a formal agreement, companies in Israel were keen on identifying the right partner in India and vice versa. Big manufacturing and software names in India were keen on identifying the right start-ups and buying those, Ms. Kursh said and pointed to two instances to underscore her point.
Israel was looking at expanding business interest with India in agriculture, water, artificial intelligence, cyber security and a few other areas. The Central Government’s defence corridor that included Coimbatore could be one area that Israel was looking at but was waiting for the Central Government to give the project a shape.
