‘Discussed ways to deepen bilateral cooperation in priority areas’
Israeli foreign minister's India visit provided further impetus to ties: MEA
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said that in his meeting with Israeli foreign minister Eli Cohen they discussed ways to further deepen bilateral cooperation in priority areas of agriculture, water, innovation and people-to-people ties.
“Glad to have met Foreign Minister of Israel @elicoh1. We discussed ways to further deepen bilateral cooperation in priority areas of agriculture, water, innovation and people-to-people ties,” Modi said in a tweet.
Cohen arrived in India on Tuesday morning on a three-day visit but announced his decision to cut short the trip in view of Tel Aviv’s operation against a militant group in the Gaza Strip.
During the day-long visit, Cohen called on Prime Minister Modi and held wide ranging talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, NSA Ajit Doval and Water Resources Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.
The Ministry of External Affairs said that Eli Cohen’s trip to India provided further impetus to the bilateral cooperation that has remained on a qualitatively higher trajectory since the historic visit of PM Narendra Modi to Israel in 2017.
The ties between India and Israel have been on an upswing in the last few years in a range of sectors, including trade and investment, defence, agriculture and water management.
“India’s bilateral merchandise trade was US$ 7.86 billion in FY 2021 2022, which has scaled up to a record US$ 10.12 billion in FY 2022-23 (April Feb),” the MEA said.
The MEA said Jaishankar and Cohen, in their talks, touched upon various aspects of bilateral cooperation, including in areas of connectivity, mobility, academic and scientific research, fintech, agriculture, water and trade.
It said they agreed to further diversify the basket of collaboration. “They also discussed regional and international issues of mutual interest, including cooperation under the framework of I2U2, the ongoing conflict in Sudan, developments in West Asia, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, etc.,” it said.
The I2U2 is a four-nation grouping. It is known as ‘I2U2’ with “I” standing for India and Israel and “U” for the US and UAE.
