Israel Defence Minister to Visit India Next Week

Defence Minister of Israel Benny Gantz will visit India next week to sign a “security declaration” marking three decades of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

Benny Gantz will depart on June 1 (Wednesday). Although the visit was announced on Wednesday, Gantz’s office did not reveal the details of the trip but said he will meet and sign the document with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh.

Earlier in March, Benny Gantz during a call with Rajnath Singh informed him that his proposed visit to India on March 30 and 31 had been postponed due to some unavoidable reasons.

The meeting in March was scheduled to include talks on improving security relations between India and Israel.

Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has earlier described the "deep relationship" between India and Israel as one coming from the heart and not being about interests and asked Prime Minister Modi to work together to take the bilateral ties to "a whole new level".

Though India had recognized Israel on September 17, 1950, full-fledged diplomatic relations between the countries were established on January 29, 1992. Since then, the bilateral relations between both countries have developed into multifaceted strategic partnerships. India and Israel elevated their bilateral ties to a strategic partnership during the historic visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel in July 2017.

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