India, Israel look past defence to boost ties

In the months leading up to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic visit to Israel, India signed two arms deals, spending $2.6bn on Israeli missile defence systems.Yet since Modi arrived on Tuesday, military ties — for decades the secretive bedrock of India-Israel relations — have taken a back seat.The governments have instead spent time discussing companies that sell medical devices, hi-tech and water systems.Rather than making the visit, the first by a sitting Indian prime minister, all about the value of deals signed, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Modi appear intent on playing up shared culture and values, in the hope this will give commercial ties deeper roots.India kept its distance from Israel for decades but is now seeing advantages in a complementary relationship with Israel.There is interest on both sides in building a broad economic base, rather than merely a contractual exchange based around defence.Modi, who is acutely conscious of the need to adopt innovation and new technology to update India’s infrastructure has always had a personal affinity for Israel and came to learn more about the country before he became premier.“India and Israel are walking hand in hand into the future as partners,” Modi and Netanyahu wrote in a joint editorial this week. “From start-ups to space, communications to cybernetics, Israel’s technological capabilities are merging with India’s.”The two men are spending 48 hours together with Modi, accompanied by Indian business leaders, getting a political and business tour that covers Israeli history, culture and innovation, as well as the signing of economic agreements.“What’s it going to take to get Israeli money to take India seriously? Just open their eyes,” Jon Medved, CEO of Israeli equity crowdfunding group OurCrowd said. “The problem is their eyes are...blinded by the China opportunity,” he added.There have only been a handful of Indian investments in Israel over the past decade, as opposed to the $16.5bn received from China in 2016 alone.OurCrowd just closed three deals with India, joining with Reliance Industries for a hi-tech incubator that helps to grow young companies in Jerusalem, bringing Israeli technology to India with Reliance Capital, and collaborating with India’s Lets Venture to invest in start-ups.During Modi’s visit, Zebra Medical Vision, a company from a kibbutz near Tel Aviv, and Bangalore-based Teleradiology Solutions will sign a partnership to use analytics in 150 healthcare centres.Looking to reorient Israel’s economy toward Asia, Netanyahu hopes more deals will follow, setting a goal of increasing exports to India by 25% in the next four years.But it may take a while before the Modi-Netanyahu relationship sparks a serious expansion in investment and trade, both of which remain relatively negligible.In many respects export-dependent Israel and India, which is focused on supplying its huge population, are complementary.Israel is a global leader in water and food systems, two critical fields India needs to upgrade. India wants to strengthen its manufacturing base and is looking to do so with technologies coming from Israel.Both countries host major diamond trading and polishing hubs.Israeli exports to India last year totalled $1.15bn, excluding diamonds, just 2.5% of total exports. Bilateral trade was less than $2bn, which jumped to $4.13bn including diamonds.