India, Israel ink two agreements

India and Israel have inked two agreements in the field of water resources management and agriculture.
These agreements were signed following the delegation level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in New Delhi.
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin is in India on a six-day official state visit. He is the first Israeli head of state to visit India in nearly 20 years. The last and first Israeli president to officially visit India was Ezer Weizman in January 1997.
India-Israel Relations

• India had formally recognised Israel in September 1950. Embassies were opened in 1992 after full diplomatic relations were established.
• Since the upgradation of relations in 1992, defence and agriculture have been the main pillars of bilateral engagement.
• In recent years, bilateral ties have expanded to areas such as education, science and technology and homeland security.
• The future vision of the cooperation is of a strong hi-tech partnership as both countries leading knowledge economies. Both countries have friendly political ties.

Trade and economic Relations

• The bilateral trade from $200 million in 1992 (comprising primarily trade in diamonds) has reached $5.19 billion in 2011. Since then it has stagnated around $4.5 billion.
• The diamonds constitutes close to 50% of bilateral trade between both countries. In recent times trade has diversified into several sectors such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, IT and telecom and homeland security.
• Major exports from India to Israel include precious stones and metals, textiles and textile articles, chemical products, plants and vegetable products, and mineral products.
• Major imports by India from Israel include precious stones and metals, chemicals (mainly potash) and mineral products, base metals and machinery and transport equipment.

Month: Current Affairs - November, 2016