Why Modi's Israel visit is so significant

India is all set to shed the public diffidence that has marked its close ties with Israel under successive governments. Deciding to fully emerge from the closet, the government on Sunday announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the Jewish nation, dates for which will be decided later.

When he does set foot on Israeli soil, Modi will become the first Indian PM to visit the country ever since New Delhi and Tel Aviv established full diplomatic relations in 1992. This, despite the burgeoning bilateral ties with a country that's also an important strategic partner, ranking third among India's largest arms suppliers, behind only the US and Russia.

Significantly, Israeli defence minister Moshe Ya'lon visited India earlier this year in the first such ministerial visit despite India having bought Israeli defence equipment worth around ten billion dollars over the last 15 years.

In the decades since diplomatic relations were upgraded, Israel has been waiting and hoping for a prime ministerial visit from India even as it played host to other Indian leaders, both from the Centre and the states. The Modi government itself indicated that importance it attaches to its ties with Israel, sending Union home minister Rajnath Singh there in November last year.

The announcement by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday that Modi will be travelling to Israel next year will be music to the ears of the Israeli government that's been waiting for over two decades for such a visit. Though it will be Modi's first visit to Israel as PM, he had visited the country as Gujarat chief minister in 2006.

On its part, there was a prime ministerial visit from Israel to India in 2003 when then PM Ariel Sharon came on a state visit. But New Delhi chose to tread a cautious path for a variety of reasons, including domestic political sensitivities, in terms of arranging a prime ministerial visit even as it steadily continued to forge close bilateral ties with Tel Aviv of which cooperation in the defence sector is a substantial chunk.

While sharing the government's decision, Swaraj also said that she herself will be travelling to Israel later this year in a west Asia swing that will also include stops in Palestine and Jordan.

The minister also indicated that India's blossoming ties with Israel will not be at the cost of Palestine."Our policy on Palestine remains the same," said the minister while also noting that India has never let down the Palestinian cause and will continue to support it.

So while India will continue to walk the Israel-Palestine tightrope, the BJP government is signalling that it's willing to cross the Rubicon and be more pragmatic about India's economic and security needs.

India's close ties with Palestine and with the larger Arab world as well as its own substantial Muslim population are among the factors that have, thus far ensured that no Indian PM has visited Israel.

This, despite a blossoming relationship that encompasses a wide canvas ranging from cooperation in agriculture to science and technology, education and security. But it's really the defence sector that's come to be the mainstay of bilateral ties. Israel notches around one billion dollars in annual arms sales to India, ranging from a wide array of missiles to spy and armed drones. Cooperation in the defence sector got a major leg-up after Israel rushed emergency defence supplies to India during the 1999 Kargil conflict.

It's amply clear that the Modi government will be hoping to press ahead with its "Make in India" pitch with the Benjamin Netanyahu-led Israeli government in the defence sector. Israel has already indicated its willingness to cooperate with the Modi government in Make in India under which indigenous defence production is an important element. Indeed, Ya'alon while on his India visit had remarked "sky is the limit" while commenting on bolstering defence ties.

Agriculture is yet another sector where India and Israel have been cooperating substantially and have a bilateral agreement for cooperation. Under the bilateral Action Plan for 2012-15, agricultural cooperation between the two countries are operational in the states of Haryana, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.