Posted on 02/25/2026 8:05:36 AM PST by Cronos
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Israel on Wednesday for a two-day visit aimed at deepening ties with a key trade and defence partner, a trip that has drawn criticism at home.
It is Modi’s second visit to Israel as prime minister.
In a post on X, the Indian prime minister said that he has landed in Israel. v “I am extremely honoured to be received by Prime Minister Netanyahu and Mrs Netanyahu at the airport. I look forward to engaging in bilateral discussions and fruitful outcomes that strengthen the India-Israel friendship,” he added.
In a statement prior to his departure, Modi said, “Our nations share a robust and multifaceted strategic partnership”. He also said he would meet Netanyahu and address the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
“Ties have significantly strengthened in the last few years.”
New Delhi has steadily expanded co-operation with Israel across the defence, agriculture, technology and cyber-security sectors while balancing diplomatic interests in the Middle East.
Talks opened in New Delhi on Monday for an India-Israel Free Trade Agreement (FTA), India’s government said in a statement, noting that total merchandise trade was $3.62 billion in 2024–2025.
Modi said he would hold talks with Netanyahu to “discuss ways to strengthen co-operation”, as well as meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Herzog replied to him on X, saying that the state and the people of Israel looked forward to welcoming him.
Full diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1992. Ties deepened after Hindu-nationalist leader Modi took office in 2014.
Modi visited Israel as prime minister in 2017, before Netanyahu made a reciprocal visit to India the following year.
Both right-wing leaders have called each other a “friend”.
In September 2023, grand plans were unveiled in New Delhi for an India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor – to link railways, ports, electricity, data networks and pipelines, including through Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Those plans were stalled by Hamas’s October 7 actions against Israel, which responded with a devastating war in the Gaza Strip, killing over 71,000 Palestinians. v One of India’s largest conglomerates, Adani Group, operates the Mediterranean port of Haifa, while Israeli military drone technology was deployed against Pakistan during the conflict between the two nuclear powers in May 2025.
Days ago, Netanyahu listed India, Greece, Cyprus and unnamed Arab, African, and Asian countries as part of a “hexagon of alliances” against “radical axes” of Muslim nations.
India, the world’s most populous nation with 1.4bn people, is majority Hindu, but an estimated 220 million Indians are Muslim.
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“The Gaza peace initiative offers a pathway,” Modi told the Knesset. “We believe that it holds the promise of a just and durable peace for all the people of the region.”
“The road to peace is not always easy, but India joins you and the world for dialogue, peace and stability,” he added.
Does he know we can see his Long-johns
2 solid & stable democracies, with no history of military coups, and both had women heads of state already, US still had none.
“Those plans were stalled by Hamas’s October 7 actions against Israel, which responded with a devastating war in the Gaza Strip, killing over 71,000 Palestinians.”
This is the first time I read the number 71,000. In another year or so it will be 500,000 innocent Muslims murdered by the Israelis.
Thank God
Coincidentally, PM Modi’s name appears in the DOJ’s recently released mountain of Epstein files. Among the released documents is an email to “Jabor Y” dated 9 July 2017, in which Epstein wrote: “The Indian Prime Minister Modi took advice and danced and sang in Israel for the benefit of the US President. They had met a few weeks ago. IT WORKED!”
The women leaders Isreal & India had were tough as nails. I am trying to figure out who is such woman in America.
Surprisingly even-handed report for a Pakistani newspaper reporting on the leaders of two nations Pakistan hates meeting up.
And America thanks God for that.
If the Tucker/Fuentes/Owens wing prevails and pushes Israel away - or of AOC or similar prevails - India will replace us as Israel’s principal military ally. And that would be a big shame.
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