India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Israel on Wednesday for a two-day visit aimed at deepening ties with a key trade and defence partner, a trip that has drawn criticism at home.
It is Modi’s second visit to Israel as prime minister.
“Our nations share a robust and multifaceted strategic partnership,” Modi said in a departure statement, saying he will meet his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and address the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
“Ties have significantly strengthened in the last few years.”
New Delhi has steadily expanded co-operation with Israel across the defence, agriculture, technology and cyber-security sectors while balancing diplomatic interests in the Middle East.
Talks opened in New Delhi on Monday for an India-Israel Free Trade Agreement (FTA), India’s government said in a statement, noting that total merchandise trade was $3.62 billion in 2024–2025.
Modi said he would hold talks with Netanyahu to “discuss ways to strengthen co-operation”, as well as meet Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
Herzog replied to him on X, saying that the state and the people of Israel looked forward to welcoming him.
Full diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1992. Ties deepened after Hindu-nationalist leader Modi took office in 2014.
Modi visited Israel as prime minister in 2017, before Netanyahu made a reciprocal visit to India the following year.
Both right-wing leaders have called each other a “friend”.
In September 2023, grand plans were unveiled in New Delhi for an India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor – to link railways, ports, electricity, data networks and pipelines, including through Saudi Arabia and Israel.
Those plans were stalled by Hamas’s October 7 actions against Israel, which responded with a devastating war in the Gaza Strip, killing over 71,000 Palestinians.
One of India’s largest conglomerates, Adani Group, operates the Mediterranean port of Haifa, while Israeli military drone technology was deployed against Pakistan during the conflict between the two nuclear powers in May 2025.
At the same time, India maintains strong relations with Gulf nations and Tehran, including developing Iran’s Chabahar port — a trade gateway to Afghanistan, where New Delhi has built a relationship with Taliban authorities.
Modi displaying ‘moral cowardice’: Congress
On the other hand, the opposition Indian National Congress launched a scathing attack on Modi over his visit to Israel.
Senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi — sister of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi — said she hoped Modi would mention the killing of “thousands of innocent men, women and children in Gaza” when he addresses Israel’s parliament and demand “justice for them”.
“India has stood for what is right throughout our history as an independent nation, we must continue to show the light of truth, peace and justice to the world,” she said on X.
Congress parliamentarian Jairam Ramesh said Modi will be displaying “moral cowardice” when the entire world is critical of his “dear friend” Netanyahu.
He said Modi was “brazenly embracing” his Israeli counterpart, who has “reduced Gaza to rubble and dust and who is orchestrating the expansion of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank”.
“On May 20, 1960, Jawaharlal Nehru was in Gaza and met with the Indian contingent of the UN Emergency Force there,” Ramesh recalled.
Days ago, Netanyahu listed India, Greece, Cyprus and unnamed Arab, African, and Asian countries as part of a “hexagon of alliances” against “radical axes” of Muslim nations.
India, the world’s most populous nation with 1.4bn people, is majority Hindu, but an estimated 220 million Indians are Muslim.
