Army Chief General Naravane leaves on a five-day visit to Israel

A statement from the Indian Defense Ministry said this is Naravane’s first visit to a major defense partner in New Delhi, during which he will meet senior military and senior military members of the Jewish state to discuss ways to further enhance India-Israeli defense ties. Citizens will meet the leadership.

“The Army Chief will take forward the excellent bilateral defense cooperation between Israel and India through a series of meetings with senior officials of the security establishment and exchange views on various defense related issues. He will hold talks with the army chiefs and visit the ground forces headquarters of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

The Indian Army said in a Twitter post: “Gen MM Naravane proceeds on a five-day visit to #COAS #Israel. The visit aims to further strengthen the strategic defense cooperation between the two countries.”

Prior to Naravane, several Indian delegates made high-level visits to Israel in recent months.

Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was in Israel one day meeting Between 17–20 October, his first as foreign minister and the first since the new Israeli government led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett took office in June.

Jaishankar and his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid had attended a meeting with the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and the US, setting off speculation about the creation of a new so-called ‘quad’. India and the US have regular meetings with Japan and Australia in a ‘quadrilateral’ format.

Meanwhile, last month, Indian Defense Secretary Ajay Kumar visited Israel for talks with Major General Amir Eshel, Director General of the Israeli Defense Ministry. The two countries then agreed to set up a task force to work on new areas of defense cooperation.

In August, the then Indian Air Force chief Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria also visited Israel.

Relations between India and Israel have steadily warmed since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1992. Bilateral trade between the two countries is around $5 billion annually, while defense trade stands at around $1 billion a year, with India, according to various estimates, a significant buyer of Israeli defense products. However, this is not reflected in the regular trading figures.

Last week, the two countries signed an agreement aimed at spurring innovation and accelerating the development of dual-use technologies by small and medium-sized firms in both countries. The agreement aims to jointly develop next generation technologies and products such as drones, robotics, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.