NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Israel from 25 to 26 February, with discussions expected to cover defence cooperation, technology partnerships and regional developments in West Asia.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu first referred to the visit while addressing the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organisations on Sunday, saying, “Parliament address on the anvil. Who’s coming here next week? Narendra Modi,” and describing India as an “enormously powerful” country with which Israel shares a “tremendous alliance”.
The detailed programme of the visit is still being finalised, though Modi is expected to address the Israeli Parliament or the “Knesset”. The visit comes at a time when New Delhi is engaging multiple stakeholders in West Asia amid ongoing regional tensions. India has not yet publicly responded to the U S President Donald Trump’s invitation to join the proposed Board of Peace for Gaza, but the issue is expected to figure in discussions with both Israeli and Arab leadership.
Ahead of the visit, India has also stepped up outreach to the Arab world, hosting the second India-Arab Foreign Ministers’ meeting last month. Palestine’s Foreign Minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin attended the meeting and called for India’s participation in reconstruction efforts in Gaza, underlining New Delhi’s attempt to maintain a calibrated engagement across the region.
The visit will be Modi’s first to Israel since July 2017, when he became the first Indian Prime Minister to travel to the country, elevating ties to a strategic partnership and expanding cooperation in defence, agriculture, innovation and technology. Netanyahu subsequently visited India in January 2018, further widening engagement across security, economic and technological sectors.
Defence ties remain a central pillar of the relationship. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India has been Israel’s largest defence customer for several years, accounting for about 34% of Israel’s total arms exports between 2020 and 2024. Cooperation has gradually moved beyond direct imports to joint development and technology collaboration.
The jointly developed Barak-8 surface-to-air missile system remains one of the most prominent examples of cooperation and is now inducted across the Indian Navy, Air Force and Army. India has also inducted Phalcon AWACS (airborne early warning and control systems), SPYDER quick-reaction air defence systems, Heron, Harop, Harpy and Searcher UAVs and Spike ATGMs (anti-tank guided missiles), underscoring the operational depth of defence engagement between the two countries.
