The attacks on Iran by Israel and now the US, has made the world a dangerous place where diplomatic relations will be tested like never before. India faces that moment of truth now, with its growing strategic ties with Israel gaining precedence over its civilisational and economic ties to other regional players like Iran.
After the US B2 bomber strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, it was the Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian who called Prime Minister Narendra Modi and not the other way round. Pezeshkian had met Modi earlier at a BRICS summit last year. Earlier that week, Modi was also called by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and they had a lengthy conversation. If voting in multilateral forums is any indication, India has clearly chosen an option that suits its strategic needs. In September, 2005, India voted with 21 other countries on the International Atomic Agency’s resolution which found Iran in non-compliance with its nuclear safeguard agreement. It was also forced to stop importing oil from Teheran after the US sanctions even as it continues to finance the Chabahar Port as a gateway for its exports to Central Asia and even Europe. Significantly, it has also abstained from voting against Israel during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s condemnation of Israel’s ongoing attacks on Iran in July, signalling a potential rift in the influential Eurasian political Cooperation bloc over the conflict. Earlier, on June 12, 2025, the United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for a ceasefire in Gaza. 149 countries voted in favour of the resolution. Only a handful of countries abstained. India was one. India’s stand has puzzled many observers. Does this suggest a major foreign policy shift by New Delhi based on strategic interests in an increasingly volatile world?
Kabir Taneja, the deputy director of the strategic studies programme at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, found India’s abstention at the UN perplexing. He suggested that it may have been influenced by India’s desire to maintain good relations with the US, noting how India is close to a trade agreement with Washington, a deal it is trying to clinch before US President Donald Trump’s threatened 27 percent tariff on Indian good comes into effect in early July. Other analysts have suggested that the shift in India’s foreign policy may have more to do with its growing strategic ties with Tel Aviv. Christopher Jaffrelot, Senior Research Fellow at the CERI institute in Paris and Professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at King’s College, London, wrote that many Israeli observers have drawn parallels between Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s retaliation after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2024 and Modi’s actions last May. He then goes on to pose a tantalising question: “Are we to conclude from recent developments that Israel is now India’s all-weather friend?”
There is now little doubt that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has transformed the country’s stance from Cold War-era alignment with the Arab world to a more pro-Israel one. Tel Aviv has replaced Moscow as India’s reliable partner in various fields, mainly to do with defence equipment and intelligence-sharing on terrorism. The initial relationship developed through clandestine meetings between their respective foreign intelligence agencies, Israel’s Mossad and India’s Research and Analysis Wing when Indira Gandhi was prime minister and there were no official diplomatic relations between the two. In recent years, India’s earlier dependence on Moscow for weaponry has dramatically fallen while Isreal’s supply of advanced weapons, from assault rifles to drones, loitering munitions and missiles has shown a dramatic rise. India is currently Israel’s largest weapons buyer. Observers also point to the ideological confluence between the two right-wing leaders.
They say photos speak louder than words. There’s a famous one of two prime ministers, Modi and Netanyahu, with their trousers rolled up, strolling together in the shallow waters of a beach in Israel, engrossed in conversation and bonding, in the contemporary sense of the phrase. That photograph was taken in 2017 when Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Isreal. Netanyahu would respond with a 6-day trip to India along with a 130-member delegation, the largest Isreal has sent to any country in recent memory. That may have been a defining moment in the relationship but it also signalled a major strategic shift by New Delhi.
A more recent example was the muted official response by world leaders to the Pahalgam attack (they did condemn terrorism in general to the all-party delegations sent by the Indian government). Only two countries instantly and vocally supported India and slammed Pakistan. The first to do so was Israel. Netanyahu condemned the incident as “barbaric” and affirmed that Israel stands with India in its fight against terrorism. After India’s Operation Sindoor on May 7, Israel’s Ambassador to India, Reuven Azar, reiterated support for India’s right to self-defence, stating that terrorists must know there is no safe haven for those committing heinous crimes against the innocent. Russia, India’s long-standing backer, kept mum.
Tel Aviv’s support for India and the evolution of strategic ties also has a backstory. Then Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir provided military support to Indira Gandhi during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War against Pakistan. Again, during the Kargil War in 1999. According to Nicolas Blarel’s book The Evolution of India’s Israel Policy, Israel aided India with mortar and ammunition, laser-guided missiles for its fighter jets as well as surveillance drones. It was one of the few countries that helped India directly. As Blarel writes: “The precision bombing aided by Israeli weaponry, limited the advantage of the Pakistani soldiers based on high positions and helped India to do so without violating orders to not cross the LoC.” Israel’s support during the Kargil conflict was crucial as India faced sanctions from the US and other countries in light of the 1998 Pokhran nuclear test. By 1992, India and Israel had established full diplomatic relations focused on trade, defence and economic cooperation. Irael’s strategic cooperation with India heightened when, in 2008, TecSAR, a radar imaging satellite, was successfully inserted into orbit by India’s PSLV to monitor military activities in the region. In 2009, ISRO launched RISAT-2, a more advanced version, manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries. That provided India with greater earth observation power, which would improve disaster management but more importantly, increase surveillance and defence capabilities. The launch was accelerated after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, to boost India’s future surveillance capabilities.
In 2000, India’s External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh along with then Home Minister LK Advani visited Israel that began the series of ministerial level visits to the country. Between 2000 and 2010, Israel transferred an estimated $10 billion worth of military equipment to India. Modi has taken that relationship to another level. During his 2027 trip, Modi did not visit Palestine, breaking from convention. Previous trips by Indian ministers and President Pranab Mukherjee included visits to both Israel and Palestine. The Indian media described the move as the de-hyphenation of India’s relations with the two states. Netanyahu reciprocated the following year with a six-day visit to India. Since then, Israel has emerged as one of India’s key partners in defence, agriculture, science and technology and counter-terrorism. the arms and ammunition trade between the two countries surged 33-fold between 2015 and 2024. In 2024, the weapons trade between New Delhi and Tel Aviv was worth $185 million, a huge jump from $5.6 million in 2015.
India is also heavily invested in Israel: Cumulative ODI from India during April 2000 to April 2025 was US$ 443 million. Indian companies are marking their presence in Israel through mergers and acquisitions and by opening branch offices. TCS, State Bank of India, Sun Pharma, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Wipro Infrastructure Engineering, Lohia Group and the Adani Group are some major Indian companies which have operations or made acquisitions/investments in Israel. In 2022, a consortium led by Adani Ports, acquired the rights to operate the Haifa Port Company Ltd from the Government of Israel with an investment of US$ 1.18 billion. Israel has also made major contributions to India’s agricultural sector, an area where it has specialised expertise. The growing relationship is obvious in other statistics. By 2024, Indians made up the largest share of foreign students in Israel, far more than the medical students in Iran, being recently evacuated from both countries. Indians are also a growing source of manual labour in Israel. India and Israel have also signed an agreement, upgrading their bilateral relations to a strategic partnership, evident during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and the Kargil war. Full diplomatic relations were established in 1992, when India opened an embassy in Tel Aviv and Israel opened an embassy in New Delhi. Both countries are members of the I2U2 Group, formed in October 2021, and have stated that they have a strong bilateral relationship, sharing similarities in spirit and facing common challenges, increasingly cooperating in the industrial, agricultural and technological sectors, and, most notably, defence.
The Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan also played a vital role in revitalization of Indian defence cooperation with Israel. During the war, Israel proved to be a reliable partner by providing India with various hi-tech weaponries that it required. This included: laser-guided missiles for fighter jets, unmanned aerial vehicles, surface-to-surface missiles, avionics and artillery, which helped India to recapture ‘Tiger Hill’ and demonstrate an operational edge against Pakistan. Similarly, in 2002 Israel delivered military support to India against Pakistan, when India decided to launch “Operation Parakram.” India has also inducted Israel’s Phalcon, which helped India to join the global ranks of AWACS operators.
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the Indian parliament attack in 2001, the Mumbai attack in 2008, and the Balakot strike in 2019, all pushed India to procure advanced and modernized military technology and missile systems from Israel to enhance its defence capability. The Indian government has approved the purchase of two more AWACS for approximately US $3 billion to acquire broader aircraft coverage of the region covering Pakistan and China. These aircraft help in tracking aerial threats and also influence the counter-response. This comes even as Russia’s replacement and parts for its aircraft and weaponry in India has slowed considerably after its war with Ukraine, although weapons like the Brahmos missile system which it produces jointly with India, remain unaffected. However, other orders like the S-400 Triumf surface to air missile system have been delayed. India’s reliance on Russian military hardware is steadily eroding as geopolitical shifts, logistical challenges and diversification efforts reshape its defence strategy. Western sanctions have further constrained Moscow’s ability to fulfil export orders, forcing India to reassess the sustainability of its reliance on Russian arms. As data from a 2024 SIPRI report indicates, India has been unmistakably moving away from a Russia-centric defence strategy, but the transition is far from complete. Russian-origin platforms still constitute a significant portion of India’s military assets, necessitating continued cooperation for maintenance, spare parts, and upgrades. The problem for India is whether Russia can remain a competitive and reliable supplier in the face of economic sanctions, supply chain disruptions, and battlefield setbacks. Israel, in contrast, has no such inhibitions.
Israeli equipment has also proved helpful in the Kashmir Valley where the Indian army deploys Israeli sensors, Heron drones, hand-held thermal imaging devices, and night vision imaging equipment to check militant infiltration from Pakistan on the line of control. In February 2019, it used the Spice 2000 guided bombs in an aerial raid targeting a terrorist training camp at Balakot in Pakistan. Indian special forces use Israeli assault rifles such as Tavor, Galil, Negev machine guns, and the B-300 man-portable antitank weapon system. This diverse arsenal grants the special forces unmatched tactical flexibility. Israel’s defence industry is currently establishing partnerships with India’s private sector to boost domestic production. Israeli defence giants IAI, Elbit Systems, and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems have partnered with Indian companies Bharat Forge, Tech Mahindra, Adani Defence and Aerospace, and Tata Advanced Systems to manufacture advanced sub-systems and homeland security systems.
- Adani Defence and Aerospace and Elbit Systems have joined hands to produce UAVs such as the Drishti-10 Starliner, a variant of the Hermes-900 drone. Reportedly, this is the only facility outside Israel to manufacture this drone system.
- In 2017, Israel Weapon Industries and Punj Lloyd commenced production of the Tavor carbine, X95 assault rifle, Galil sniper rifle, and Negev light machine gun at a facility on the outskirts of Gwalior.
Such collaborations with the private and public sector have enabled India to make rapid strides in its ambition to build an advanced domestic defence-industrial base. Even more important is Israel’s expertise in the entire gamut of anti-terrorism operations, which it is willing to share with Indian security forces, along with assistance on cyber-security, another area of growing concern for India. That alone makes it an invaluable partner, even at the cost of its civilisational and historic ties with the Arab world, including Iran.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dilip Bobb is a former senior managing editor, India Today (1975 -2010), and Group Editor, Features and Special Projects, Indian Express (February 2011-October 2014)
