A long delayed visit

PM's decision to visit Israel demonstrates laudable realism

Inevitably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's impending visit to Israel has raised all the usual questions about India's long-standing support to the beleaguered state of Palestine. But by choosing to become the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel - the dates are yet to be fixed - Mr Modi has demonstrated a pragmatic sense of realpolitik. In essence, he would be signalling that stronger economic relations with Israel in no way conflict with India's support of the legitimate interests of Palestine. Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj's visit to that country and to Jordan serves to reinforce the message.

Mr Modi's diplomacy has so far focused on economic ties; and economics has been at the heart of the Indo-Israeli relationship since the two opened diplomatic relations in 1992. Since then India has become the West Asian powerhouse's tenth largest trading partner and the third largest in Asia, with trade rising from a paltry $200 million in 1992 to $4.4 billion in 2013. True, some parochialism may be involved here, since diamonds, the business centred in Gujarat, constitute a significant portion of Indo-Israeli trade - but the trade basket is now reasonably diversified. More to the point it is in sophisticated defence technology that Indo-Israel ties have blossomed. This is not surprising given the unique cohesion of domestic interests involved. Over the past two decades, Israel's economic policy has been focused on providing incentives for information-technology start-ups, which became the basis of the country's economic miracle. As a result, Israel is a global dynamo in defence technology, an industry powered by start-ups set up by former members of the Israeli Defence Force. India is the world's third largest military establishment and among the world's largest buyers of materiel, so the market for defence technology here is huge. Already, some of India's large business houses have established tie-ups with Israeli firms for defence production - the Tatas, Mahindra, Bharat Forge, to name a few. Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, the Spike anti-tank missile are among the major deals that have been signed between Indian and Israeli companies in the recent past and defence ministry officials say some $2 billion worth of defence contracts are in the pipeline. This particular relationship has many spin-offs, not just in terms of technology transfers but also as a useful jumping-off point for the feted but yet to be realised "Make in India" programme, which includes higher limits on foreign direct investment in defence joint ventures.

But defence is just one element of useful cooperation between Israel and India. The transfer of irrigation technology is another but it has begun only in a small way. Israel, occupying some of the most infertile land on earth, has famously managed to make the desert bloom. Lately, a start-up developed technology that extracting water from air (mainly to hydrate troops in the field). In short, Israel has the vital knowhow to help India avert a mammoth impending water crisis. If Mr Modi's visit can mark the start of a programme to make India's parched landscape bloom, it would be a landmark of the stature of the Green Revolution.