- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S relationship with Israel has touched the heights in recent years and on Tuesday (2), it was proved again on the COP26 climate summit platform when Naftali Bennett, the incumbent chief minister of the Jewish state, greeted his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi and even asked him to join his party — the Yamina Party.
The interaction between the two leaders took place during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the concluding day of the World Leaders’ Summit, the high-level segment of the crucial event to save the planet from the devastating impact of global warming.
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In a video of Modi’s interaction with Bennett which went viral, the latter was heard telling the former, “You are the most popular man in Israel. Come and join my party.” Modi was seen bursting into laughter upon hearing the invitation.
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Modi had a rapport with Bennett’s predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu, who had served as Israel’s prime minister for 12 years. In June, he lost power to Bennett, who has served under his premiership in the past.
The Modi-Bennett meeting was the first formal meeting between the two leaders since Bennett, 49, took over as the prime minister following a landmark electoral defeat of Netanyahu, who is currently the leader of opposition.
Modi and Bennett also spoke over ways on expanding cooperation between the two countries in areas of high technology and innovation, India’s ministry of external affairs said in a statement on Tuesday.
The ministry also said that Bennett thanked Modi for restarting the Indo-Israeli relationship. He reportedly said that the Indian and Israeli civilisations share a deep connect.
“Our goal is to continue the wonderful path that you placed with my predecessor and bring it to a whole new level, so we can ensure that our two nations work together on innovation, technology, space, security, agriculture, food technologies, and of course climate-related technologies,” the Israeli leader said.
Thank you @narendramodi.
Together, we can bring India-Israel relations to a whole new level. ???? https://t.co/TpPHOFr5LL— Naftali Bennett בנט (@naftalibennett) November 2, 2021
“Enhancing friendship with Israel. Prime Ministers @narendramodi and @naftalibennett had a fruitful meeting in Glasgow. Both leaders discussed deepening various avenues of cooperation for the benefit of our citizens,” the Indian prime minister’s office said in a tweet.
Enhancing friendship with Israel.
Prime Ministers @narendramodi and @naftalibennett had a fruitful meeting in Glasgow. Both leaders discussed deepening various avenues of cooperation for the benefit of our citizens. pic.twitter.com/QnzdCmgijT
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) November 2, 2021
Modi also spoke about his meeting with Bennett in a tweet, saying, “Glad to have met, yet again, PM@naftalibennett. We had fruitful talks on boosting India-Israel friendship in sectors such as research, innovation and futuristic technologies. These sectors are critical for empowering our youngsters.”
Glad to have met, yet again, PM @naftalibennett. We had fruitful talks on boosting India-Israel friendship in sectors such as research, innovation and futuristic technologies. These sectors are critical for empowering our youngsters. pic.twitter.com/AUEENd6xCE
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 2, 2021
