Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed Israel and Pakistan visit once again will revive India’s traditional relations with the two countries. But given Modi’s out of box thinking to keep India on the global high one cannot rule out India offering to negotiate between Israel and Palestine. This visit, first by any Indian Prime Minister, is seen by experts that Israel and India face terror threats from organisation with similar radical ideologies as Al-Qaeda, ISIS, LeT and Hamas. There is also a feeling that New Delhi did not get its share for supporting Palestine. India may be home to second largest Muslim population in the world but it has been constantly blocked for involvement in the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC). There is a feeling that Arab nations have not prevailed upon Pakistan to rein in cross-border terrorism in Kashmir. Modi is not new to Israel. He had earlier visited that country when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat. And the present meet between Modi and Netinyahu would be the second one after the only bilateral meeting on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly last year. Before this during Vajpayee years, Jaswant Singh and L.K Advani had visited Israel, but Vajpayee couldn’t. It was after former Minister S. M Krishna’s visit during UPA II tenure the relations strengthened and today Israel is the largest partner in defence sector. Defence ties got a major boost after Israel revoked emergency supplies to India during the 1999 Kargil conflict. Since then Israel has emerged as one of the largest arms supplier after the US and Russia. As far as trade and commerce is concerned since 1992 India has become one of Israel’s largest trading partner. The trade relations between the two extend beyond defence, agriculture, space and water management. Being a stable democratic economy India provides a strong ground for many Israel companies. Keeping the ground situation in view both can develop into an all weather relations politically, economically and geo-strategically.
