Swaraj, who is on her maiden visit to West Asia as the External Affairs Minister, said she was looking forward to her discussion with the top Israeli leadership. “India attaches the highest importance to the full development of bilateral ties with Israel. Our bilateral cooperation has grown in a number of areas over the past two decades, but the potential of our relations are much more,” she told media along with Netanyahu before their meeting.
“I hope to discuss the entire spectrum of our bilateral relationship,” Swaraj said, adding that she hopes to get an assessment of the situation in the region and identify areas, where the two countries can cooperate.
In his welcoming remarks, PM Netanyahu said there has been a great flowering of relationship and friendship between the two countries in the recent years. “I take special pleasure in welcoming you here and sending my regards to my good friend and colleague Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi. The expression of this growing relationship has been in the visit of the (Indian) President, the first ever by an Indian Head of the State,” he said. He added that the two countries are intensifying their contacts and cooperation in fields such as science and technology, cyber, defence and agriculture. “India and Israel are at the cutting edge of so many innovations and by working together we can do a lot more for our people and the world,” he said, adding that Israel admires India and views it as a great friend.
Netanyahu, who has met Modi twice in the last one-and-a-half years, said “sky is the limit” that can be achieved between the two sides with “limitless” potential.
The Israeli Prime Minister has in the past said that his Indian counterpart has told him that New Delhi needs Tel Aviv to achieve major developmental projects outlined by him. Swaraj would also meet President Reuven Rivlin, Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Minister of Infrastructure Yuval Shteinitz and deputy Foreign Minister Tsipi Hotovely. She will be also meeting the Indian community in Israel. There are four groups of Indian Jewish communities in Israel with a strength of approximately 80,000.
Swaraj’s visit comes barely three months after the historic visit of President Pranab Mukherjee and aims at encasing on the goodwill generated by that visit.
Min flays killing of Israeli woman in terror attack
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has condemned the killing of an Israeli woman, a mother of six, who was stabbed to death in a terror attack in the West Bank. “I condemn this terror attack very emphatically and I offer my deep condolences to the lady’s family,” she said during her meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
The woman, identified as 38-year-old nurse Dafna Meir, was killed by a Palestinian suspect in front of her six children in Otniel, south of Hebron. “Sadly, you are here on a day when we are burying another victim of terror. A young mother murdered in front of her children in her home,” Rivlin said.