PM Modi invites Israeli counterpart Netanyahu to visit India

New Delhi [India], January 11 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to visit India at an early date during a telephonic conversation on Wednesday, according to a press release by the Prime Minister’s Office.

The PM also congratulated Netanyahu for his appointment as the PM of Israel for a sixth time, and wished him a very successful tenure, as per the press release. According to the recent press release, the two leaders during the telephonic conversation expressed satisfaction at the rapid progress in the India-Israel strategic partnership in recent years and agreed on the potential for further strengthening strategic cooperation in a variety of areas.

Prime Minister Modi, earlier on December 29, had also congratulated Netanyahu, through a tweet, on being sworn in as the Prime Minister of Israel and said he looks forward to working to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries. “Heartiest congratulations Netanyahu for forming the government. Looking forward to working together to strengthen our strategic partnership,” PM Modi tweeted.

Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Israel on December 29, hoping to deliver political stability after five general elections since 2019. Netanyahu, 73, took the oath after Israel’s parliament, or Knesset, passed a vote of confidence in his new government. Out of the 120 members, 63 voted in favor of the new government, The Times of Israel reported.

The Israeli newspaper said Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister. The report added this will be his sixth government, and by allying far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties to his right-wing Likud, it will be his and the “country’s most hardline to date.” Israel held the fifth parliamentary election in fewer than four years on November 1. Netanyahu and his right-wing bloc won 64 of the 120 seats in the parliament to defeat the center-left bloc which ousted Netanyahu in June last year.

Israeli Ambassador to India Naor Gilon recently said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s historic visit to Israel in 2017 broke the ice between the two nations and the famous picture of him with ex-Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu is one of the pictures that will stay as a symbol of how things are done.

“The famous picture of PM Modi with ex-Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the Olga beach is one of the pictures that will stay as a symbol of how things are done. The friendship they developed continued with other PMs also,” Gilon told ANI while explaining the bond between India-Israel. Ambassador Gilon also said the big boost in the relationship came after a first-ever historic visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Israel followed by Netanyahu’s visit to India.

“We have to say that there were visits before that of Indian President and Israeli President, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, but the visit of PM Modi and a few months later in 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came to India on January 18 – this was a game changer to relations between the two countries,” added Gilon.