India, Israel to discuss reviving defence deals, free trade talks during Rivlin visit.

New Delhi, November 10: Israel and India will be exploring ways to revive defence purchases and restart the stalled negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA), during the visit of President of Israel Reuven Rivlin, the first such visit of an Israeli President in over two decades.

Rivlin, who will be visiting India from November 14-21, will be discussing these issues with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a bilateral meeting.

The visit of the Israeli President is expected to pave the way for Modi’s visit to that country later this year, or early next year, and eventually pave the way for the visit of their Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to India – even as both countries celebrate 25th year of diplomatic ties in 2017, sources told BusinessLine.

These visits will see the culmination of defence contracts worth $3-4 billion in the coming years, which includes procurement of ‘Spike’ anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM), bombs, target equipments and other weapons system.

The procurement of Spike ATGM from Israeli Rafael Advanced Defence Systems Ltd, at a cost of $1 billion, was finalised in May this year – this includes transfer of technology to state-owned Bharat Dynamics Ltd.

“It is a very deep relationship. India and Israel enjoy very unique relation in areas of defence. There are plans for fresh joint venture and technology transfer,” Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said here on Thursday.

India is Israel topmost buyer of military hardware. However, over the last few years Israel has become concerned as India has increased its military purchases from the US.

Israel had been also upset of the fact that India has not given “due importance” to the proposed free trade agreement (FTA). Two-way trade between both countries registered is biggest fall of 12.49 per cent in 2015-2016 reaching $4.91 billion from $5.61 billion in 2014-15, according to official statistics.

Last year, during the visit of their Economic Minister Naftali Bennett to India, both sides vowed to increase bilateral trade to $10 billion. As a result, sources said, Israel is keen on resuming the FTA talks, which started in 2010. So far, eight rounds of talks have already taken place and the last one was held in 2013. The deadline to sign the pact was 2014.

Source : thehindubusinessline.com