Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would be visiting India “soon.”
Mr. Netanyahu will be the second Israel PM to visit India. In 2003, the then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had travelled to India and it took 12 years before India reciprocated in the form of President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Israel last month. Mr. Mukherjee had invited Mr. Netanyahu to India.
Mr. Netanyahu’s reference to visiting India came while answering a question about his vision for Israel at the Center for American Progress on Tuesday. “There are three things other countries want from Israel…..first, Israeli technology, second, Israeli technology and third, Israeli technology. Whether it is India, which I will be soon going to visit, or any other country,” he said, adding that his plan was to make Israel into a technological powerhouse.
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India-Israeli relations have turned more intense and demonstrative ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in May 2014. Mr. Modi plans to visit Israel and will be the first Indian prime minister to do so, though dates have not been finalised yet.
Mr. Modi and Mr. Netanyahu had met in New York in September 2014. According to a report in The Jerusalem Post then, Mr. Netanyahu had told Mr. Modi that "sky is the limit" for relations between the two countries. "We are two old people, some of the oldest civilizations on earth. But also two democracies, proud of our tradition, but also eager to seize the future," Mr. Netanyahu told Mr. Modi, the paper reported.