Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel has generated a lot of interest as it is the first such visit by an Indian Prime Minister. According to officials, the Prime Minister will be accompanied by his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu through most of his visit that will take him to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa, and will see the countries sign a strategic partnership on non-security issues. India’s Ambassador to Israel Pavan Kapoor spoke to The Hindu about the focus of the visit.
Amid all the interest and expectation from the visit, what will the focus be?
I think the focus of the visit, is the visit itself. The fact that an Indian Prime Minister is making a visit for the first time in 25 years since we established full diplomatic ties is significant in itself. Also since this is the 25th anniversary, we want to mark that and celebrate that.
At some stages the relationship has gone faster, sometimes not so fast, but it’s been a steady upward trend.
Have India and Israel put behind them what PM Modi described with the U.S., “the hesitations of history” now?
Absolutely. This is very much the formal ‘coming out’ of the relationship at the highest level. When the PM comes here, he will be making that very clear as he tells the government of Israel and PM Netanyahu that India is your genuine partner. So there is none of that bashfulness any more, and it is completely out in the open.
Yet, agreements planned during the visit are only expected to refer to Israel as a strategic partner on non-security issues like water and agriculture, according to the Israeli cabinet resolution. Why?
I think there has been too much focus on defence and security aspects. The future of the relationship and much of the present of the relationship lies in development, which includes agriculture, water, innovation, science and technology. This is where we can impact the largest number of lives of people back in India.
When it comes to innovation, what is it that India, which has its own IT industry, engineers, innovation culture, learns from Israel?
What we really need to learn from the Israelis is the seamless manner in which they have cooperation between industry, academia and government. We have to learn from their universities, how they have technology transfer companies based right on their campuses, who help convert theory into useful products in a very short period of time. We have a developed system, but the areas where they have start-ups far exceeds what we have. This is a country that has no automotive industry for example, and yet they are the R&D centre for autononomous cars (self-driving) in the world. We also need to have Israeli companies look more at the Indian market.
So far, Israeli start-ups have looked at American investors and buyers, but Indian firms could do the same with larger markets and cheaper production lines.
The PM is also addressing a diaspora event in Tel Aviv this week. How is the Indian-Israeli community different from others Indian diasporas?
Well, most of the diaspora immigrated here in the 1950s and the 1960s, and the large number of them don’t have too many ties back home. Most Jewish Indians, about 80,000, have all moved here, and there are just about 4,000-5,000 left in India. So the familial link is not that strong. Also, the community here is not that well-off compared to those in the U.S. and the U.K. People moved here on the basis of their religion, not [for economic reasons]. So we try to bring them together once a year, and this year, they will be able to hear directly from Mr. Modi about how they can play a role in building India-Israel ties.
Connectivity between the two countries is still poor, there are no flights from Delhi, and the only direct flight from Mumbai by El Al runs just three times a week. Why has Air India not started its service, as promised, in May?
You will have to ask Air India that. They announced that there would be a flight [in May], but we have heard nothing since.
