Prime Minister Netanyahu met this morning with his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, on the second day of his six-day visit. The Israeli Prime Minister was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Presidential Palace in New Delhi by the Indian Prime Minister, before Netanyahu, accompanied by his wife Sara, laid a wreath at the memorial of India’s iconic freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi. Netanyahu told reporters “This is the dawn of a new era in the great friendship between India and Israel. It began with Prime Minister Modi’s historic visit to Israel which created tremendous enthusiasm. It continues with my visit here, which, I must say is deeply moving for my wife and me and for the entire people of Israel and I think it heralds a flourishing of our partnership to bring prosperity and peace and progress for both our people,” the Israeli leader asserted.
During his first historic trip to India, Prime Minister Netanyahu is accompanied by a 130-member delegation drawn from the infocomm technology, agriculture and defense sectors. The Israeli Prime Minister, who is scheduled to visit, among others, India’s financial capital Mumbai and Prime Minister Modi’s home-state of Gujarat – will also seek to Iron out differences with his Indian counterpart that surfaced from India’s decision to scrap 500 million dollars order to buy anti-tank guided missiles from Israel’s state-owned defense contractor ‘Rafael’. It is important to note that Israel is Israel’s biggest arms market, as New Delhi buys around 1 billion dollars’ worth of Israeli-made weaponry every year.