Modi’s trip is a spiritual practice. If Modi’s visit in 2017 was a breakthrough in relations between the two countries, then his return in 2026 will mean the consolidation of these relations.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to arrive in Israel on Wednesday for a two-day visit, his second to the country. But it’s not just ceremony, contract, or even bilateral warmth. It comes at a moment of geopolitical reversal.
On a sultry day in July 2017, Benjamin Netanyahu greeted Modi on the tarmac of Ben-Gurion Airport, “Prime Minister, we have been waiting for you for a long time.”
In fact, Israel did it too. It took nearly 70 years for an Indian prime minister to visit the Jewish state – which India voted against at the United Nations in 1947 and with which it did not establish diplomatic relations until 1992.
Israel only had to wait nine years before visiting again.
In the years that followed, what was once a cautious, low-key relationship has grown into one of Israel’s most important strategic partnerships. Modi now arrives not just as a visitor but as the leader of the world’s most populous country and one of the world’s fastest-rising nations.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a joint press conference in New Delhi, India, January 15, 2018; Illustrative. (Source: Avi Ohayon/GPO)
Modi arrives at a symbolic moment
Modi’s trip comes as parts of the international community step up efforts to isolate Israel over the Israel-Hamas war. There was diplomatic pressure, legal challenges, calls for sanctions and boycotts. However, the Prime Minister of India – a country with a population of 1.4 billion, a civilizational power, and an important global player – did not alienate or lower relations, but deepened them.
For Netanyahu, the image itself carries weight. This is a rebuttal to the isolation narrative.
But the visit also brought about a stunning reversal of fortune.
When Modi took office in 2017, Israel’s diplomatic status was on the rise. Netanyahu is aggressively expanding Israel’s global influence — into Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Gulf and Eastern Europe — promoting Israel’s strengths in intelligence, cybersecurity, agriculture and water technology. Israel’s international standing is improving.
Today, India’s global trajectory is on the rise. New Delhi positions itself as a bridge between East and West, a manufacturing powerhouse, a technology hub and a counterweight to China. At the same time, Israel is going through one of the most diplomatically challenging periods in its history.
In other words, Modi’s return visit comes at a time when momentum is turning around.
Netanyahu hopes to leverage Israel’s close ties with India as part of a broader diplomatic architecture – what he described at a cabinet meeting on Sunday as a “hexagon” of alliances: India, some Arab states, Greece, Cyprus, African partners and other Asian countries.
The aim, Netanyahu said, “is to create a national axis that sees reality, challenges and goals through the same lens, facing the radical axis – the radical Shia axis that we are fighting hard against, and the emerging radical Sunni axis.”
India is at the heart of this vision.
After Modi came to power in 2014, he instituted a so-called “de-hyphenation” policy – separating India’s relationship with Israel from its relationship with the Palestinians. Relations with Jerusalem will no longer be automatically balanced or constrained by Ramallah.
This shift is revolutionary.
For decades, under Congress governments, India’s approach to Israel has been cautious, often motivated by domestic political considerations – India has the world’s third-largest Muslim population – and historical sympathy for the Palestinian cause. The Congress party has criticized Modi’s upcoming visit, saying his government has “abandoned” the Palestinians.
Under the Congress government, relations did exist but remained largely unknown. Modi changed that. He brought the relationship into the public eye and then dramatically expanded it.
Trade has expanded beyond diamonds and agriculture to advanced technologies, networks, renewable energy and water management. Free trade agreement negotiations have made progress. Labor mobility agreements have brought thousands of Indian workers to Israel, and the Indian Embassy estimates the number of Indian citizens currently in Israel at about 42,000, not including the more than 100,000 Indian-origin Jews.
But the core of the relationship is defense. Here, the numbers speak for themselves.
India has become Israel’s largest single defense customer
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which tracks international arms sales, one-third of Israeli arms sales went to India between 2020 and 2024. Jerusalem’s defense sales to New Delhi have totaled just over $20 billion over the past decade, and according to Forbes India, the two countries have struck an eye-popping $860 million worth of deals since the beginning of this year.
Israeli systems in service with India include air defense platforms such as the Barak missile system, drones, radar systems, anti-tank missiles and advanced surveillance technology.
However, the defensive relationship has changed. India’s ‘Make in India’ principle requires substantial local production and technology transfer. Israeli defense companies now operate joint ventures and production lines in India.
While Israel’s relations with some traditional allies have been strained by the Gaza war, relations with India have weathered the crisis.
Modi was one of the first world leaders to condemn the October 7 attack. But beyond the rhetoric, the collaboration reportedly continues in practical terms.
According to foreign reports, when some Western countries slowed down or even embargoed arms supplies to Israel during the war, New Delhi continued to supply military equipment.
Indian-produced remotely piloted aircraft are reportedly being used to gather intelligence in Gaza, and joint production lines continue to operate. India not only issued a statement of solidarity; It reinforced in a real way.
Moreover, New Delhi has maintained steady engagement as some European governments distance themselves from Israel and diplomatic pressure intensifies.
However, this reliability does not mean consistency on every regional issue.
India, for example, has a long-standing relationship with Iran – with energy ties and infrastructure projects such as the development of Tehran’s Chabahar port, which gives New Delhi access to Central Asia – and a long tradition of keeping its options open. India has avoided forming rigid military blocs and refused to become involved in overt anti-Iran alliances.
Modi will not consider a partnership with Israel — or participation in Netanyahu’s hexagonal axis vision — as part of a formal alliance against Tehran.
However, if India is careful not to be seen as aligned with Iran, it will be less reserved about counterbalancing Turkey’s growing regional influence – and in particular Ankara’s further embrace of Pakistan.
In recent years, Türkiye has expanded defense and diplomatic coordination with Islamabad and taken a stance on Kashmir that New Delhi views as hostile. Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan harbors an unrepentant hostility to Israel. This aligns the interests of India and Israel.
An expanded framework linking select Arab states such as Israel, India, Greece, Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates, which also have tense relations with Ankara, provides India with strategic leverage against Turkey’s ties with Pakistan.
Ultimately, there are two key messages from Modi’s trip.
First, efforts to isolate Israel are neither widespread nor entirely effective. Great powers continue to act in their own interests, and a strong relationship with Israel is very much in India’s interest.
Second, Jerusalem continues to work to strengthen ties elsewhere, especially amid political and demographic changes in the United States and Europe. As Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday, close ties with the United States “does not mean that we do not seek more alliances; on the contrary, we constantly cultivate them.”
Modi’s visit is such a spiritual act. If Modi’s visit in 2017 was a breakthrough in relations between the two countries, then his return in 2026 will mean the consolidation of these relations.
For Netanyahu, this is an opportunity to demonstrate that even amid diplomatic setbacks and challenges, Israel remains a strong partner and that as alliances shift, Jerusalem can change with them. Hexagon Vision is one such example.
As Netanyahu said on Sunday, there have been massive flows in the Mediterranean, Ganges and Jordan rivers since Modi’s first visit nine years ago. At a time when some are talking about Israel’s isolation, the image of India’s prime minister landing Ben-Gurion underscores the partnership between the two countries that has become a stabilizing pillar of Israel’s foreign policy. The goal now is not just to deepen the relationship between the two countries, but to make it an integral part of both sides.
