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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu held a working meeting and lunch with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Seven agreements were signed and a joint statement was issued.

Indian Prime Minister Modi invited Prime Minister Netanyahu to make an official visit to India; the latter accepted the invitation.

Prime Minister Netanyahu:

“What a great day, the first day of a historic journey – your visit, my friend, Prime Minister Modi, to Israel. You are making history. We are making history together.

This is a deeply moving moment for me, both in personal, but also in national and international terms.

I have a feeling that today, India and Israel are changing our world and maybe changing parts of the world. Because this is a cooperation, it’s a marriage really made in Heaven but we’re implementing it here on Earth.

We discussed in our meetings yesterday and today, just now, with several of our ministers and your delegation, we spoke about so many fields where we think we can make a big difference – a big difference in water and agriculture and health, in every field, in so many fields, in the fields that affect the lives of our people, their well-being, their employment possibilities, the longevity of their lives and how they live it.

So we have decided, because Prime Minister Modi and I are I think not only wedded to visions, but we like to have our feet connected. We try to look to the distance but have our feet firmly planted on the ground. We have empowered our staffs to bring us concrete plans in these diverse areas by the first of January. So this is very practical.

We’re going to seek to bring to fruition these various areas which can truly revolutionize our relationship but also the lives of many, many millions of people, both in India – in India, it’s many hundreds of millions of people – but we’re talking about beyond that even. We’re talking about also cooperation in third countries and actually working together to better the future of the people of Africa. India is present there, Israel is present and coming in to Africa and we think that by joining forces in various areas that I just discussed and others, we can help the people of Africa as well. So this is very, very exciting and it shows you how we are seizing the future.

We also recognize that we are being challenged. We are being challenged by the forces of terror, the forces of terror that seeks to undermine our world, our countries, the peace and stability of our common civilization and we have agreed to cooperate in this area as well.

I have to say that from this meeting we shall be meeting young Moishe Holtzberg who is a survivor of the horrible terror attack in Mumbai and I thank you, Prime Minister, for making this important gesture. But this is an expression of our commitment to fight the bad and work for the good, and I think this is what marks this visit. It’s a partnership to seek the good, to defend the good, to achieve the good.

And this is a good day.

Welcome, my friend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photo Credit: Haim Zach, GPO)