Benjamin Netanyahu has made a stunning comeback to Jerusalem’s power corridors. ‘The King of Israel’, as his loyal supporters call him, led his Likud Party to become the largest political group in Knesset with 32 seats. Together with his allies, the Netanyahu-led right religious bloc has 64 seats in the 120-member Knesset.
Netanyahu spent the last 17 months in opposition while facing three corruption trials. During his time out of office, there was a minimal deviation from the previously established cooperation apparatus established between India and Israel.
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Experts that WION reached out to, point out multiple arrows of convergence of interests between India and Israel, that are expected to fuel the bilateral cooperation between the two sides during Netanyahu’s upcoming tenure in Jerusalem’s Prime Minister’s Office.
Netanyahu and the state of I2U2 or ‘West Asia Quad’
“With Netanyahu’s re-election as Israel’s Prime Minister, the I2U2 quadrilateral will get a further boost,” says Sifra Lentin, Fellow, Bombay History Studies at Mumbai-based Gateway House, referring to the crucial multilateral group with geopolitical implications, consisting of India, Israel, the United States and United Arab Emirates (I2U2).
Initially called the International Forum for Economic Cooperation, the I2U2 grouping held its first-ever summit virtually in July 2022. Its joint statement reaffirmed the support for the Abraham accords and pledged India-centric investments worth $2.33 billion in the areas of Food Security and Clean Energy. This includes 300 megawatts hybrid renewable energy project in India’s Gujarat state with an estimated cost of $330 million as well as $2 billion-worth investments to develop a series of food parks across India.
“We need to look forward to India and Israel as partners in a multilateral like I2U2 where we have other good friends like the UAE and the United States. India also has excellent relations with all the signatories of the Abraham Accords,” Sifra Lentin adds, referring to the accords of normalised diplomatic ties of Israel with Bahrain and UAE, respectively.
Cooperation in developing startups
In November 2021, India and Israel signed a bilateral agreement for innovation in dual-use technologies. Prior to that, the MoU with a contribution of US$20 million from each side over five years (2018-2023) continues to fuel joint India-Israel Research and Development projects.
The total trade between the two countries stood at $7.86 billion in 2021-22.
Experts say that the convergence of mutual interests between India and Israel is ‘very strong’. Be it defence, trade, education, tourism, or diaspora relations.
India-Israel relations: Modi-Bibi at helm create ‘certain magic’
Sifra Lentin reminded that one must not forget that there was an acceleration in Indo-Israel engagements when both Modi and Netanyahu were at the helm of their respective national capitals.
“The tenor of the bilateral has been the same even under his successors but, yes, with Modi-Bibi at the helm there is a certain magic,” Sifra Lentin told WION.
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