The optics from the scenes at the Ben Gurion airport, bear hugs, gestures and words all displayed the final arrival of a strategic partnership in the making for last many years. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel had been waiting for this moment, of a visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Israel, for the last seventy years; it finally happened and that too symbolically on the anniversary of Israel’s famous intervention operations at Entebbe in 1976 in which Netanyahu lost his elder brother. The visit needs to be viewed beyond the expressed emotions for its true worth in an increasingly dangerous world in which India and Israel find themselves with many common threats.

Driving into Israel from Jordan over the famous King Hussain Bridge some years ago what struck me were the vast plantations in the Jordan Valley, all brought to life through drip irrigation, the agro technology which Israel mastered and which enabled water deficient countries to make use of their arid lands. I start with this observation because mention Israel and every one jumps to only issues related to military technology. The latter will find much reference in this piece but it’s the ability to innovate for survival in diverse fields and take those innovations well beyond which has been the major strength of the Israeli state from which India needs to learn.

While understanding that this is one of Prime Minister Modi’s most important foreign visits it is also relevant to understand what prevented the development of the relationship to this level in the last 25 years after establishment of diplomatic relations. The beginning was shackled by the legacy of Cold War ideas and relationships although the desire for closer defense, economic and people to people ties existed for almost seventy years. What held India back even after 1992 were the compulsions of the management of our ties with the Arab world and in turn with the Islamic world. As a nation with a large Islamic population, the handling of ties with the Islamic world was important. India was extremely concerned because of its ongoing spat with Pakistan who would have exploited any relationship perceived inimical to interests of the large comity of Arab nations and turned them against India. In addition India with its huge dependence on the Arab world for its energy needs could have ill afforded not maintaining strong political ties with them.

Prime Minister Modi’s foreign policy involved almost three years of managing, cultivating and strategizing for this big event; it could not have been possible without that. Sensitive to the presence of an eight million Indian diaspora in the Gulf region and considering all the angles of the implications on India’s energy security and trade relations he first tied up the ends, visited important Islamic nations such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar and Iran and received delegations from them. He thus ensured that a substantive move towards Israel would not come in the way of relationships in a fast changing strategic environment of the Middle East. The relationship with Israel could not be taken to the next level with the shadow of the Arab world looming in the background and any mention of Israel could not be simply hyphenated with the long standing problems of Palestine. Nations ultimately seek their interests independent of their concern for other nations although this need not substantially change the way they do business with those nations. By not visiting Ramallah on the West Bank Mr Modi is not necessarily shunning a relationship with Palestine but rather giving it a status separated from Israel. In many ways, that should work positively for the Palestinian Authority too.

While there are many issues on the agenda of the visit the dominant part of the relationship remains the security domain. There will be talks on agriculture, water and disaster management, startups, university adoption, student exchange programs and technical education but there is no denying that the domain which drives Israel’s virtual existence is security. Netanyahu’s call for taking ‘Make in India’ to ‘Make with India’ is a relevant one as no other technically advanced nation will share technology with India the way Israel does. Fully aware of the limitations of its own markets Israel would definitely be seeking to enhance its share of 7.9 percent of the Indian arms and equipment market to something much higher. With India it gets to partner a nation both with a security environment with almost similar threats and one which is hungry for technology.

Leading the pack in military equipment is the recent agreement for the Indian purchase of ten Heron advanced armed drones at a cost of almost 450 million USD. Capable of substantially changing the offensive capability across the LoC in a No War No Peace environment the drones can undertake surgical strikes much deeper in adversary territory than can be executed by foot borne Special Forces. The other equipment keenly awaited is the Barak 8 surface to air missile system to boost Indian air defence systems which have been largely deficient in capability. In the field of cyber security, intelligence acquisition and intervention in counter terror operations there can be a no match to the Israeli expertise. The Spike anti-tank guided missile launchers and missiles for Indian infantry units will be a boon in view of the repeated failure in the development of the Nag anti-tank missile. My last important take away from this domain is the creation of an electronic wall for border management. With India’s intent of upgrading border management substantially the Israeli deployment and response system along the Lebanese border is one of the best models to look at.

There will be many nations watching with keen interest the emergence of India’s de-hyphenated foreign policy in the making and it is good that display of complete strategic independence is going to be a part of Indian policy for the future.  Two more days of high profile events beamed live from Israel and discussed threadbare by Indian TV channels are  surely not going to go waste.