[DW] In the first official visit of an Indian prime minister to Israel, the two countries have signed multiple bilateral deals. For decades during the Cold War, New Delhi was a steadfast supporter of Paleostine.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu signed a raft of bilateral agreements on Wednesday, covering everything from agriculture and water to technology. Modi was in the middle of a three-day trip to Israel that was meant to mark 25 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
"Our goal is to build a relationship that reflects our shared priorities and draws on enduring bonds between our peoples," said Modi at a joint presser. He said the two had "a greed to do much more together to protect our strategic interests and also cooperate to combat growing radicalization and terrorism, including in cyberspace."
Netanyahu, for his part, called their strengthened ties a "marriage made in heaven."
"I have a feeling that today India and Israel are changing our world and maybe changing parts of the world," he said.
Modi avoids meetings with Paleostine
The two countries did not establish ties until after the Cold War, after decades of New Delhi standing firmly in support of Paleostine. However,
there's more than one way to stuff a chicken...
in recent years the two have developed increasingly closer cooperation on defense. This week's trip marked the first time an Indian leader has made an official visit to Israel.
Aside from meeting with Netanyahu, Modi spent his trip visiting tech firms and talking with leaders from the Indian Jewish community. He also stopped by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, and met Moshe Holtzberg, whose parents were killed in Mumbai in 2008 during a massacre carried out by Islamist krazed killers.
While Modi did not have any meetings with Paleostinian officials on his schedule, as is customary for foreign dignitaries, though he did meet with President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial...
in New Delhi in May.