Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s planned upcoming trip to Israel will represent a diplomatic shift that “should have been carried out many years ago,” the Hindustan Times said in an editorial on Monday.
“Whatever the outcome of the visit, the very act of visiting Israel will be historic,” it noted. “No serving Indian prime minister has ever visited Israel. There are also increasing signals that Modi will break the traditional diplomatic hyphen New Delhi has maintained between Israel and Palestine and will not include a stopover in Palestine in his itinerary. Such a decision would fit in with Modi’s general attitude that Indian foreign policy should reflect the rising global profile of India, adhere strictly to the national interest and be less concerned about ideological and symbolic actions.”
“More fundamental is that such a trip would reflect the sea-change that has taken place between India and Israel since the former normalised diplomatic relations in 1992,” the New Delhi-based English-language paper went on to say. “Israel is now one of the three largest suppliers of arms and weapons to India, a major source of assistance in the country’s counterterrorism programmes and, uniquely in the world, a partner in the development of India’s nuclear arsenal. The last fact alone would indicate Israel has become strategically more trusted by India than any other country in the world.”