External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar on Wednesday called on Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and talked over ways to strengthen the bilateral ties besides exchanging views on regional and global issues of mutual concern. Notably, this is Jaishankar’s prime visit to Israel as External Affairs Minister. He is visiting the country at the invitation of Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

After the meeting, the External Affairs Minister said in a tweet: ''A warm and rich discussion on realizing the full potential of our strategic partnership. PM Bennett's purposeful and focused approach to it was deeply encouraging.''  Jaishankar said that Bennett's sharing of strategic perspectives was also very valuable. In multiple tweets, he said: ''India and Israel will work even more closely to realise their partnership's vision for the next 30 years.'' 

Earlier, Jaishankar called on Israeli President Isaac Herzog at Beit HaNassi, the president's official residence here. The two leaders talked over ways to strengthen the growing bilateral relations in various sectors besides exchanging views on global strategic affairs.

India and Israel heightened bilateral relations to a strategic partnership during the historic visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel in July 2017. Since then, the relationship between the two countries has focussed on expanding knowledge-based partnership, which includes collaboration in innovation and research, including boosting the ‘Make in India’ initiative.

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