Photo: Tahelka
While dates for the trip are yet to be decided and announced, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj stated that she would visit the country of Israel sometime later this year, along with visits to Palestine and Jordan.
Presenting an annual summary of her ministry’s work for the first year of rule, Swaraj also clarified that there was no decision on a cricket series with Pakistan and that the Modi government’s diplomacy had resulted in around 39% growth in FDI pouring into India in the past year. Modi’s visit to Israel is almost a foregone conclusion with veterans stating that there do not exist many world leaders who refers the Israeli PM as “my friend”. Netanyahu was also the only bilateral meeting he had on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly last year.
India was among the early nations which had recognized Israel back in 1950, but soon after voted against it in the UN. Diplomatic ties were established by the then PM Narasimha Rao’s government in 1991, though there had been some unofficial contacts earlier, as in the famous visits by Moshe Dayan. Jyoti Basu, the communist chief minister of West Bengal who ruled the sate for around 34 years, broke ground when he visited Israel. Ariel Sharon was the first Israeli PM to visit India in 2003, but there have been no high-level visits from India since.
India, Swaraj said, had moved away from a “goody-goody” official dialogue with China. Acknowledging the difficulties in resolving outstanding matters, she stated that the PM had told the Chinese leadership they should “reconsider” their positions on some old issues. India conveyed its opposition to the Pak-China economic corridor in New Delhi and Beijing, with even the PM clarifying India’s objections to it. The Chinese, she said, have terrorism threats as well, emanating from the same region that threatens India.
Tags: india Israel Modi's Israel's tour Narendra Modi Sushma Swaraj
