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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday evening 4 Tishrei met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the first meeting between prime ministers of Israel and India in over a decade.

Prime Minister Netanyahu raised the issue of the danger of a nuclear-armed Iran as well as the global threat posed by Islamic terrorism. He also proposed that Israel and India cooperate in the technology sphere, especially in developments in agriculture and water technology. He updated his Indian counterpart on his decision to establish a national cyber defense authority and proposed bilateral contacts on the issue; Prime Minister Netanyahu said that cyber would be a significant economic sector in the future.

At the start of his meeting Mr. Netanyahu said, “I’m delighted to meet you Mr. Prime Minister. This is an opportunity for Israel and India to expand further our relationship. We are two old peoples, some of the oldest in the nations on earth but we are also two democracies, we’re proud of our rich traditions but we’re also eager to seize the future. I believe that if we work together we can do so with benefits to both our peoples. So in that spirit it’s a wonderful opportunity to see you here and I would like to invite you to come to Israel. I know you’ve been there before, it will be a pleasure to welcome you again, we’re very excited by the prospects of greater and greater ties with India, we think the sky is the limit.”

PM Modi replied, “I agree with you that India-Israel relations are historical. I met this morning with the people from the Jewish community, American Jewish Committee, and they all appreciated that there is a deep recognition in Israel that India is the only country where anti-Semitism has never been allowed to come up, where Jews have never suffered and lived as an integral part of our society [click here for details]. There was a time in the city of Mumbai that Hebrew was officially taught in the university and even one of the mayors of Mumbai city was from a Jewish family.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)