India, Israel Can Create “More Magic”

India and Israel mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of full diplomatic relations in January 2017. While relations between the two countries have been soaring for much of this time, in recent years and under the current BJP-led NDA government a new era of visibility has ensued. While president Pranab Mukherjee went to Israel in 2016 in a historic first visit, Israeli president Reuven Rivlin paid a weeklong visit to India in November 2016. In between there have been several other high-profile bilateral visits of ministers. While ties between the two countries are perceived to be all about defence and security, Israeli ambassador in India Daniel Carmon sheds light on the other major areas of bilateral cooperation – namely, agriculture and irrigation.

- Aditi Bhaduri

India and Isreal are celebrating the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations. How would you evaluate the ties?

This month of January 2017 is the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Israel. I can say those relations have seen a revolutionary improvement from their initial settings till today. Those two countries, representing different regions, are so different in their initial settings, their numbers, size, Israel is such a small country, compared to India, in the side of the population, in the background, and yet we have found in those 25 years, common grounds, common values, similar challenges.

India and Israel have learnt to partner in areas that are complementary, like in health and are counting on each other. In no uncertain terms, they are going through a wonderful journey of friendship and partnership in which two countries, and their governments and populations benefit respectively.

We are two nations and two people with long historical traditions who got independence around the same time, in 1947 and 1948 respectively, from the British and we have the same heritage and learnt to develop our own identity and independence and democracy and liberty. We are both relatively young people and very eager to develop ourselves as we look to the future and we both have a lot of interest in doing it together.

That’s something we keep saying but the more we experience our relations the more we understand the potential it has. We are not just talking the talk but also walking the walk in various fields according to our own experiences.

President Rivlin recently visited India and in 2015, president Pranab Mukherjee visited Israel. Prime minister Modi is yet to visit. A little too slow?