India’s Modi addresses Israeli Parliament, deal negotiations ongoing
On the first day of his two day visit to Israel Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the Israeli parliament, the Knesset in Jerusalem, according to a report by All India Radio.
During the address Modi condoled the loss of life and terrorism perpetrated by the terrorist group Hamas on October 7 2023 in Israel. He drew parallels to India’s own experience of being attacked by terrorists during the November 26 2008 attacks in Mumbai which led to the death of 160 people including civilians, law enforcement and security forces and armed forces personnel.
Some of the civilians killed during the Mumbai attack were also Jewish and Israeli nationals. India subsequently established that the Mumbai attacks were perpetrated by terrorist groups backed, funded and operationally overseen by Pakistan’s military and intelligence agencies.
Modi also revealed that his exact day of birth coincided with the day India officially recognised the state of Israel on September 17 1950.
According to a report by The Times of India, Modi was also honoured with the Speaker of the Knesset Medal and became its first awardee.
Preceding the address to the Israeli parliament the Indian leader was received at the airport by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his spouse. Modi also had a meeting and conversation with Netanyahu and later visited a technology and innovation exhibition with him, with both Israeli and Indian products featured.
The visit to the exhibition included visuals of Modi and Netanyahu posing with a Royal Enfield Motorcycle - the product of a world recognised Indian motorcycle brand Eicher Motors (NSE: EICHERMOT).
While Modi has been in Israel, a delegation of Israeli officials is purportedly negotiating the specifics of a Free Trade Agreement with the Indian side in New Delhi, in parallel according to another report by All India Radio.
An agreement will be a headline maker when confirmed, and may sit beside a list of agreements and memoranda signed between Tel Aviv and New Delhi as Modi’s visit concludes. Defence is also a major pillar of the visit and diplomatic engagement that is underway between India and Israel.
While specific and confirmed cues are not forthcoming from either the Israeli defence establishment or its Indian counterpart. It is likely that India is seeking components for its future nationwide air defence shield dubbed the “Sudarshan Chakra” programme which is conceived to be a multi stage and multi layer system with several components of different origin, range and role.
Possible acquisitions could include jointly developed versions of air defence and precision strike weapons and platforms such as ballistic missile interception capable air defence systems IAI industries’s Arrow and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems’s David’s Sling and shorter ranged Elbit systems’s (TASE:ESLT, NASDAQ:ESLT) Iron Dome and Iron Beam.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAV)s may also be explored as Israel and IAI industries has been a traditional vendor to India’s military for UAVs which India has successfully used in combat operations. However none of these deals or likelihood of these systems being under discussion has been referred to by any official sources.
Be it coincidental or by design, India has also been negotiating an FTA with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) which can be seen as a hedge strategy for the broader West Asia region in India’s complex foreign policy web.
India has always taken a neutral stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict and has advocated for a peaceful resolution of all conflicts in the region through dialogue and diplomacy as it has strategic ties to both Israel and Arab states that affect its own national interest directly across defence, food, mobility, diaspora and energy security.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended the second and final of his state visit to Israel on February 26, 2026, according to a report by All India Radio.
During his visit a delegation of Israeli officials was in New Delhi negotiating a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in parallel with their Indian counterparts headed by India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal.
The round of FTA negotiations were positive but didn’t conclude with the agreement as was widely expected, and instead a second round of negotiations has been scheduled for May 2026. It is unclear what issues or obstructions remain in concluding the agreement, or if the issues are regulatory or legislative that need to be resolved first before any preferential trade access to either side can be granted by the other.
According to the official website of the Indian prime minister, Modi delivered a joint statement to the press alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, continuing his comments on terrorism being unacceptable in any form, expressions and manifestations including cross border terrorism which was unequivocally supported by the Israeli side.
The summit’s official outcomes have been listed as 16 agreements across domains such as emerging technologies, cyber, agriculture, water management, health, entrepreneurship, mobility, defence and security. One of these agreements is an MoU between India’s NPCI International (NIPL) and Israel’s MASAV on implementation of India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) digital payments system in Israel.
Modi made a reference to being informed that the agreement will now lead the way in enabling UPI to be functional in Israel. The goal behind the agreement is to enable seamless remittances between Israeli and Indian nationals, companies and entities via an instant and well regulated digital mechanism.
UPI is a fully sovereign technology as part of India’s digital public infrastructure and doesn’t rely on any third party services like SWIFT. While SWIFT is the ubiquitous standard for cross border digital payments, the exclusion of Russian financial institutions from it after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine has established a precedent.
States with a high sense of sovereign fiscal patterns in international trade seek to develop or adopt alternatives which can’t be cut off depending on the political and alignment calculations of third parties at any time.
While defence agreements were also expected as the two countries have a burgeoning security relationship and shared cross border threats, nothing substantive on the procurement of new platforms or systems was announced during or in conjunction to the visit.
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