Israel’s Minister of Economy Nir Barkat, currently on a visit to India, expressed the potential for collaboration between the two countries, stating that India is seen as a “brother” and such cooperation can “boost and scale our growth”.
Speaking to WION’s diplomatic correspondent Sidhant Sibal, he said, “I understand the potential of collaboration with India…we could actually together provide to the world new ideas, new initiatives in food production from the sea in agrotech”.
Nir Barkat is on a four-day official trip to India and is the first minister under the current Netanyahu government to visit the country.
During his visit, Barkat, who has served as mayor of Jerusalem in the past, will hold a meeting with Indian trade minister Piyush Goyal and travel to Mumbai as well
WION: What is the key focus of your visit to India?
Nir Barkat: Israelis and Indians have a lot in common. For 2000 years, Jews felt comfortable living in India, feeling secure. And our government-to-government ties are also strong. Both PM Modi and PM Netanyahu have a really good relationship and the governments understand that we have a lot in common and a lot to cooperate. Having said that, our goal is how do we have more and more business development together. How do we grow our economy? We understand in Israel that India is going to be very soon the third largest economy in the world, and we want to help you get there. And we want to make sure that Israel and India collaborate together for the benefit of the growth of both people.
WION: What will you discuss with the Indian ministers for increasing trade between the two countries?
Nir Barkat: The focus will be on how we can help each other. Israel’s very strong on technology, innovation, new ideas, and new ways of thinking. We know how to collaborate with governments that complement Israeli skills. Israel is at the forefront of security and counterterrorism.
Moreover, Israel is very strong in what we call a desert tech, such as Agrotech, food tech, and creating food from the sea. We’re now looking at areas like this, and while we’re only less than 10 million, India with 1.4 billion people has to work in collaboration with us to scale the ideas that we have. So, I believe that by working together, we can help each other to improve our economies.
WION: Can you elaborate on that?
Nir Barkat: Technology has a big huge cluster in Israel. 25 per cent of all companies in the world in cybersecurity are fundamentally Israelis. Since we have our threats, we’ve developed to outsmart our enemies in terror and other challenges, and we’re willing to share those ideas with our friends here in India. Now, counterterrorism is not only an Israeli challenge, it’s a global challenge. So, we’ve learnt that the best way to challenge terror is not just being reactive, but also being good at offensive strategies. We are very strong in satellites, and creating new kinds of tools to have better security. I believe it will scale in a big way.
WION: India-Israel Free Trade Agreement is something that everyone has been trying to talk about. What is the status and when do you think this agreement can be concluded?
Nir Barkat: I will raise this in my meetings with ministers here. But it’s not just the free trade agreement. There is a lot of collaboration between business clusters that are successful in Israel and successful here.
WION: How optimistic you are when it comes to the free trade agreements?
Nir Barkat: I think that both India and Israel have had more free trade agreements lately, in the last few years, and we both recognise how the collaboration between Israel and India can boost and scale our growth. And that’s why I believe, at least I’m going to be raising with my peers here in the government, the value of free trade agreements, how they could decrease all kinds of obstacles and improve the collaboration between the two people. And it’s not just the people-to-people relationship, which is excellent and love, as we see you folks as brothers in this region.
WION: How do you see the rise of India impacting West Asia?
Nir Barkat: I’m very happy because I believe the (kind of) relationship we have, we’re going to benefit from it because we can help you get there. I think the government here is doing a phenomenal job on understanding the opportunity and leading the country for more and more open markets. The I2U2 is a great example of that. How do we, the United States and India and the United Arab Emirates and Israel can collaborate for the benefit of all four partners involved here. I think that kind of relationship is a booster that will help us boost and swiftly move for better economies. So, the fact that now India is becoming a superpower, and I believe, in a few years from now, it is going to be the third largest economy in the world. So, Israel working with India together will help us grow, and I believe it will help you grow faster.
WION: How do you see the Indian PM’s leadership in terms of bringing Israel and India closer? Since 2014, the relationship between the two nations has been taking a different level altogether.
Nir Barkat: Indeed, that’s why I’m here. This is one of my first trips as the new Minister of Economy and Industry. I understand the potential of collaboration with India. But to scale big numbers, we need partners like India, that “know how” to take and scale big numbers of creating food from the sea. These are futuristic ideas that work together. And so, we could actually together provide to the world new ideas, new initiatives in food production from the sea in Agrotech and desert-tech.
WION: Are we looking at trading in national currencies?
Nir Barkat: Well, these are the details we could solve, the motivation is there, and we can rely on each other for futuristic and new ideas. We know that when India will grow and scale, the relationship between the two countries will be stable and we can build on them. In other words, we can rely on the relationship with India, and I believe India can rely on the relationship with Israel. So, when I go back home, I’m going to convey to my government and my prime minister how beautiful and how big the opportunity is to work with one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
WION: Adani has invested in a port in Israel, and there have been some controversies regarding the group. Do you have any concerns?
Nir Barkat: No, I think that we are proud of the fact that an Indian businessman invested in Israel, the fact that Israel accepted that investment in a positive way. There are only good complimentary things I hear in Israel about Adani, and actually is a good testimony that when we do business in each other’s country, it’s accepted well.
WION: There have been a lot of protests against the Netanyahu government. Has it impacted the government’s stability?
Nir Barkat: I’m very proud of our democracy. When you think about Israel’s democracy, the fact that people care and they come on the street, and demonstrate against some of the reforms we proposed because we believe that it will make us a better democracy, some object to it and feel concerned. But we will overcome our differences. We’re an exciting democracy. And I look at this in a positive way. Very few democracies in the world have that kind of care.
WION: But has it impacted the stability of the government?
Nir Barkat: We understand that there are challenges in our country, in a democracy and I believe you’ll see that the Prime Minister and I will support them on this, has to consider the different opinions in the country and work out when we talk about infrastructure ideas in our democracy. Our goal is to make them as widely accepted as possible. And I believe that you will see that we will overcome the majority of these challenges. You know why, because we have no choice. We’re a strong democracy, we want to thrive and succeed and we all understand eventually, then we need to come together, certainly against threats in Israel and for the benefit of our future.
WION: Now coming to an issue that perhaps has been a long-standing one, that we saw the flare-up in Palestine. Can you talk about what’s the situation there?
Nir Barkat: I think that unfortunately, we have terrorists challenging Islam. And by the way, they’re supported by the regime in Iran, using proxies in Lebanon. We have Hezbollah in Lebanon, we have Hamas in Gaza. We have challenges from Iraq, with long-term missiles in Syria. And we have internal challenges in Judea and Samaria and others. I recommend our enemies to reconsider their thoughts. Because if God forbid, they decide to challenge us, we’re going to hit them very hard. And they have to understand that while there may be internal challenges in Israel when it comes to uniting against the enemies that want to combat and fight us, we know how to hit them extremely hard. We’re not afraid to go into their backyard and find those terrorists and kill them if needed before they use terror against us.
WION: Since both nations are dealing with terrorism, how Israel has been helping India in terms of combating this menace?
Nir Barkat: There are things that are not going to be discussed. I prefer that rather than speak about it and give knowledge to our enemies, sharing of knowledge and information and exchange of ideas and weaponry should not be done over the TV. But trust me, I know that the collaboration is very, very strong, and we will help in all ways possible to help India become a stronger, more independent, better economy and of course more secure.
WION: You are the first minister from the current government to come to India. Can we expect more ministers and Prime Minister Netanyahu to visit India?
Nir Barkat: My strong recommendation when I go back home is to speak to my peer ministers, and to better explain to them the opportunity. There are no shortcuts here. We need to collaborate and exchange knowledge and information and make an ecosystem even stronger and better, leverage what we have to make it much, much better. And as big as the opportunity Israel has with the United States, we could develop that opportunity with one of the superpowers, the economic superpowers of the future, which is India. And because the relationship between the Indian people and the Jewish people in Israel is so good, the fact that this could happen faster than anything else depends on us. It’s ours to lose. We’ll do everything we can to make this happen.
WION: At the start, you mentioned how Jews have been in India for centuries and haven’t faced any violence. Can you elaborate on that?
Nir Barkat: Israelis, Jews and Indian people have a long history, and that memory is only positive. Unfortunately, we have memories in Europe just 70 plus years, in which we are reminded of the Holocaust. On the other hand, we remember how the Indian people protected the Jewish people through tough times. We never forget our history. I’m really for the fact that I can represent Israel here and thank the Indian people, not only for the past, and not only for the present but actually together discuss a better future.
