Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to Israel on February 25-26, 2026, comes nearly nine years after his first trip to Israel as prime minister. The timing carries weight, given the turbulence in the Middle East and India’s broader strategic recalibrations across the region.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the visit to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on February 15, and said Modi would speak at the Knesset. He went on to describe a “tremendous alliance between Israel and India,” emphasizing that India, with 1.4 billion people, is “enormously powerful” and “enormously popular.” Such statements underscore how both sides view the partnership as consequential.
The visit agenda will be wide-ranging. Modi will hold talks with Netanyahu and other senior Israeli leaders, likely covering defense, counter-terrorism, technology, trade, and regional developments.
The partnership has earned substantial goodwill in India, rooted in support during critical national security moments.
Defense and security remain pillars of India-Israel ties, spanning missile systems, drones, surveillance platforms, cyber capabilities, and intelligence-sharing. Israel has emerged as a reliable partner, supplying high-end technologies that have strengthened India’s defense modernization. The partnership has earned substantial goodwill in India, rooted in support during critical national security moments, from early assistance during the 1962 Sino-Indian War and the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War, to unmanned aerial vehicles and precision-guided munitions during the 1998 Kargil crisis and after, as well as counter-terrorism cooperation after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, and more recently during May 2025’s Operation Sindoor, the retaliation against Pakistani terror camps and airfields.
Counterterrorism has gained prominence after Modi expressed solidarity with Israel following the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023. Both countries continue to view terrorism as a shared strategic challenge, reinforcing the high-trust nature of the partnership and the importance of close security and intelligence cooperation.
Although cooperation existed even before 2017, it was often discreet because of political caution and concern about Arab reactions. Modi’s leadership has transformed the relationship into an open and comprehensive strategic partnership. His July 2017 visit, the first ever by an Indian prime minister to Israel, marked a shift. As Indian foreign policy expert Harsh Pant observed, “A hallmark of Modi’s foreign policy has been a self-confident assertion of Indian interests… marking a distinct break from unnecessary and counterproductive diffidence of the past.”
The upcoming visit is expected to advance talks on joint manufacturing, technology sharing, and innovation-driven cooperation.
This evolution has led to deeper industrial and technological collaboration. The upcoming visit is expected to advance talks on joint manufacturing, technology sharing, and innovation-driven cooperation, aligned with India’s “Make in India” push for defense self-reliance. Recent agreements have reinforced this, including a January 2025 memorandum of understanding and a Working Group on Defense Cooperation meeting the following month that focused on co-development and co-production of advanced military systems. Technology, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and innovation will feature prominently, reflecting this industrial integration and growing private-sector linkages. For India, Israel remains a reliable partner offering capabilities without the geopolitical conditions other suppliers attach; for Israel, India is both a major defense market and a production hub in an uncertain regional environment.
The visit also holds wider regional significance. It comes as India has strengthened engagement with Arab partners through multiple initiatives, including the January 2026 India-Arab Foreign Ministers’ Dialogue. Modi’s approach shows close ties with Israel can progress alongside India’s relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council states. The hesitation and defensive mindset that once shaped New Delhi’s outreach is gone. India-Israel relations today also overlap with the United States, in an emerging framework of technological and strategic convergence.
Discussions will include the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, which links India, the Persian Gulf, Israel, and Europe. The Corridor highlights Israel’s growing role in India’s regional connectivity vision and underscores how bilateral ties intersect with broader strategic frameworks.
With the India-Israel relationship moving toward greater innovation, joint production, and strategic coordination, this visit could mark another milestone in the upward trajectory of stronger India-Israel ties.
