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Modi-Bibi bromance in full bloom, but India-Israel ties not that rosy

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Seema Guha
Seema GuhaJan 17, 2018 | 11:47

Modi-Bibi bromance in full bloom, but India-Israel ties not that rosy

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s six-day trip to India is a celebration of the growing warmth in ties between New Delhi and Tel Aviv.

Indians as a whole admire Israel, a tiny country, which has shown grit and determination and thrived in a hostile environment in the past.

Of course, much has changed now. Israel is a leading military power and is in no mood to give any concessions to the Palestinians, extending settlements in the West Bank against all international opinion. To cap it all, US President Donald Trump is backing Israel’s claims to Jerusalem as its capital.

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Tel Aviv has few solid friends in the developing world, and its rapport with India, a country of over a billion people is a feather in Israel’s cap.

Benjamin Netanyahu has often publicly spoken of the warmth between the two countries. Yesterday (January 15) after talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a smiling Nethanyahu dubbed Modi  a "revolutionary" leader. The bromance between the two prime ministers was in full view in Hyderabad House. Nethanyahu has publicly declared that  the partnership between India and Israel is a marriage made in heaven, but consecrated on earth. This has delighted India.

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Image: Reuters photo

Yet foreign policies are not made by personal likes and dislikes, but pragmatic hard-nosed considerations. Despite convergence and personal goodwill, there is deep divergence between India and Israel. The hope of many Hindutva forces that India-US-Israel can form a formidable alliance against the Islamic world is belied by hard reality.

Luckily for India, the prime minister is not carried away by such sentiments despite his personal affinity to "Bibi", and is ready to do business with every country, irrespective of ideology.

India voted with the rest of the international community in the UN against the US decision to declare Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

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New Delhi has been a traditional supporter of the Palestinian cause. Under Modi, relations with Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and the rest of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) nations have improved rapidly. Without getting into the politics of the GCC, where Qatar is being ostracised, India has kept its ties with all of them.

India’s ties with Iran are on track despite the fact that both Israel and the US are vehemently anti-Iran.

New Delhi’s Chabahar port move to circumvent Pakistan to deliver its goods to Afghanistan is a case in point. Ahead of Nethanyahu’s visit, India and Iran signed a $600-million deal with Iran for supply of locomotives and freight cars from India. 

Road transport and highways minister, Nitin Gadkari, said while signing the pact, that the locomotives could be used in the Chabahar-Zahedan railroad to accelerate development of the port, in line with India’s desire to connect to Central Asia and beyond to Europe.

Despite the glowing language with India, Israel is also great friends with China, a rising world power and India’s major rival in Asia.

Nethanyahu used similar language to describe Israel’s relations with China, calling it a marriage made in heaven during a visit to Beijing last March.

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Ironically, China’s ties with Israel has followed a similar trajectory like India’s. Diplomatic ties between Israel and China was established formally only in 1992, but since then the ties have flourished. China is a massive market for Israeli goods, and long before 1992, had been secretly selling arms to China. Much like Israel did with India during its wars with Pakistan before ties were upgraded. 

Israel is today China’s second largest supplier of defence equipment. Russian being the first. Beijing is also Israel’s largest trade partner in Asia. Over the years, China has been wooing Israel for its technology and many Chinese firms have invested hugely in Israel. 

Beijing and Tel Aviv are in the process of negotiating a free trade treaty. Talks on this has continued for two years and more. Annual trade between China and Israel is roughly around US $11.4 annually.

Israel is also enthusiastic about China’s One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, something that New Delhi is vehemently opposed to. India was the only major  country that boycotted the Beijing extravaganza attended by most of the world last year, to promote Chinese President Xi Jinping’s  ambitious ancient silk route idea by land and sea.

Like India, China has no bilateral differences with Israel but is against the settlement in the West Bank encouraged by Netanyahu’s hardline Likud government.

Since the pragmatic [former] Congress prime minister Narasimha Rao decided to upgrade diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992 , both the UPA and the NDA have forged strong ties with Israel.

All Indian governments have walked a tightrope in balancing ties with the Palestinians and the wider Gulf region. Prime Minister Modi is no exception. He is scheduled to visit Ramallah next month.

Nethanyahu’s visit, the first by an Israeli prime minister, has more to do with optics than anything else. Apart from defence relations and agriculture, Prime Minister Modi urged Israeli companies to take advantage of the liberal FDI policy in defence, and jointly manufacture in India.

Despite attempts by the government to open up the defence production sector, red tape remains and foreign companies find it difficult to manoeuvre India’s complex laws. The two sides signed nine agreements which included MoUs on extending cyber security, co-operation in the oil and gas sector as well as film co-production.

Major issues such as defence and home land security as well as dry land agriculture are already on the table. The effort now by both governments is to expand the relations to as many sectors as possible.

Last updated: January 17, 2018 | 17:40
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