Israeli Foreign Minister to visit India next week

JERUSALEM: Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen will be visiting India next week in what is being seen as the build-up to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to New Delhi later this year.

Cohen will be on a three-day visit to India from May 9 to 11 during which he will hold discussions with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. He will visit Mumbai for a day.

It is the third high-level visit by senior Israeli officials in less than three months, coming in quick succession after Knesset (Israeli parliament) speaker Amir Ohana's trip at the end of March-early April and also Economy Minister Nir Barkat's visit to India last month.

Cohen will be accompanied by a business delegation. Collaboration in the field of innovation with a focus on agriculture and water management is likely to prominently feature in discussions during the Israeli foreign minister's visit.

He will also be advancing a consular agreement being worked out to bring Indian workers to Israel to work in the construction sector.

The high-level visits are being seen as a prelude to the much-anticipated visit of Prime Minister Netanyahu to India later this year.

In January, Modi invited Netanyahu to visit India at an early date.

His visit to India in 2019 during his previous stint as the prime minister was called off due to scheduling issues. Both sides were working on a plan for his visit to India in 2021 but that did not materialise as he was ousted from power in June that year.

Netanyahu came back as the prime minister in December after his Likud party formed a coalition with some other parties following the elections.

The 73-year-old political veteran was sworn in as Israel's prime minister on December 29 in a comeback at the head of a hard-right cabinet.

The ties between India and Israel have been on an upswing in the last few years in a range of sectors including defence, agriculture and water management.