Indian, Israeli firms join hands for defence

A seminar, organised jointly by SIBAT, International Defence Cooperation Directorate and Ficci will take place on February 21-25

About 25 Indian and 100 Israeli firms will come together later this month for a unique business seminar on defence and security in Israel. The seminar, organised jointly by SIBAT, the Israeli defence ministry, the International Defence Cooperation Directorate and Ficci will take place on February 21-25, and will mainly focus on increasing collaborations and JVs between the MSME ministry on both sides. The seminar will highlight the huge potential to cooperate under PM Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative and will deal with the new expected defence procurement procedure 2016, with a special focus on JVs between industries in Israel and India. More than 500 business-to-business meetings are expected to take place during the seminar.

Both countries’ defence establishments and industries have been partnering for many years in various areas. This will be the fourth joint seminar for SIBAT and Ficci in recent years. Another seminar, dedicated to armoured vehicles, is expected to take place in Chennai later this year.

SIBAT director, Brigadier-General (Retired) Mishel Ben Baruch, who will be the keynote speaker at the seminar, said: “In recent years, we have witnessed a growing cooperation between Indian and Israeli defence companies. This cooperation demonstrates the warm relations between our two countries... SIBAT, as the directorate responsible for assisting Israeli defence companies abroad, is very satisfied and proud to witness this collaboration.”