India, Israel meet to boost defence cooperation
Recently, the Defense Ministers of India and Israel concluded bilateral talks. After the talks, both the countries have adopted the “India-Israel Vision on Defense Cooperation”.
It aims to further strengthen the existing framework of the India-Israel Defense Cooperation Framework.
A Letter of Intent to enhance cooperation in the field of future defense technologies was also exchanged.
Full diplomatic relations were established between India and Israel in the year 1992. Since then Israel has been one of India’s top defense partners.
Israel accounts for 13% of Indian defense imports (SIPRI 2021). These include important defense technologies and joint development projects.
Some examples of these:
- Missiles: Barak-8 (surface-to-air missile) and Spike (an anti-tank guided missile), and
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs): such as Harop and Heron.
- In the year 2021, the two countries decided to set up a task force to prepare a comprehensive 10-year roadmap. It aims to identify new areas of cooperation.
Other areas of cooperation-
- Agriculture: Benefiting from Israel’s expertise and technologies in horticulture, micro irrigation etc. Several Centers of Excellence have been established related to this field.
- Economic and Commercial Relations: India was Israel’s third largest trading partner in the year 2020-21.
- Agreements have also been made in other areas like science and technology, innovation, health care, space etc.
- Uttar Pradesh has signed a ‘Scheme of Cooperation’ with Israel to address the water crisis in the Bundelkhand region.
Source – The Hindu
