Israel Defense Minister to visit India next week to ramp up bilateral defence ties

Tel Aviv [Israel]: Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz is set to travel to India next week to sign a “security declaration” marking three decades of diplomatic ties between the two countries, a media report said on Wednesday.

Gantz will depart on June 1 on a trip that was meant to take place in March but got cancelled, The Times of Israel (TOI) reported.

This trip was cancelled after he contracted COVID-19 in the backdrop of a series of terror attacks in Israel that left dozens of people dead.

Although the visit was announced on Wednesday, Gantz’s office did not reveal the trip’s details but said he would meet and sign the document with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh.

Earlier in March, Israel’s Defence Minister, during a call with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, informed him that his proposed visit to India from March 30-31 had been postponed due to some unavoidable reasons.

According to the Israeli newspaper, the meeting in March was scheduled to include talks on improving security relations between India and Israel.

The report added that Tel Aviv has sought to enhance defence ties with New Delhi in recent years, especially in the fields of air and missile defence. (ANI)