India, Israel and the Abraham Accords

Foundations of the Partnership, 1950 to 2020

India recognised Israel on 17 September 1950. Soon afterwards the Jewish Agency opened an immigration office in Bombay, which later became a trade office and then a consulate [1]. Full diplomatic relations, with embassies in both capitals, began in 1992 [1]. In that year, merchandise trade between the two countries stood at USD 200 million and consisted mainly of diamonds [2]. The relationship grew steadily over the next 25 years. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel from 4 to 6 July 2017. He was the first Indian Prime Minister to do so, and the two governments upgraded the relationship to a strategic partnership during the visit [1]. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a return visit to India from 14 to 19 January 2018, and both visits produced joint statements [1]. Practical cooperation followed. During the 2017 visit, the two sides signed agreements on a national water conservation campaign in India and on reforms of the Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam, the state's water utility [1]. By 2020, India therefore had a strategic partnership with Israel and close ties with the Gulf monarchies. However, Israel and most Gulf states had no formal diplomatic relations with each other. India managed its Israeli and Arab partnerships as separate bilateral relationships. The Abraham Accords changed this by bringing India's partners into direct, open contact with one another.

The Accords and India's Response, August to December 2020

The United States, Israel and the UAE issued a joint statement on 13 August 2020 announcing that Israel and the UAE would normalise relations [3]. On 15 September 2020, leaders signed three documents in Washington: the general Abraham Accords Declaration, the Israel-UAE treaty, and a declaration between Israel and Bahrain [4]. Morocco and Sudan later signed agreements under the same framework [4]. The Declaration commits signatories to dialogue among the three Abrahamic faiths and to cooperation that supports "science, art, medicine, and commerce" [5]. The Israel-UAE document is a full treaty of peace, diplomatic relations and normalisation. In it, both parties state that they stand ready to join the United States in launching a "Strategic Agenda for the Middle East" [3]. India responded the day after the first announcement. On 14 August 2020, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said that India had consistently supported peace, stability and development in West Asia, which India calls its extended neighbourhood [6]. The statement welcomed the full normalisation of ties between the UAE and Israel and described both nations as key strategic partners of India [6]. The same statement repeated India's traditional support for the Palestinian cause and expressed hope for the early resumption of direct negotiations towards a two-state solution [6]. India thus welcomed normalisation between two partners without changing its stated position on the Palestinian question. This allowed New Delhi to deepen ties with Israel and the Gulf at the same time.

From Bilateral Ties to the I2U2 Group, October 2021 to July 2022

The Accords made possible a new four-country format. Researchers Gedaliah Afterman and N. Janardhan write that the Accords turned the UAE-Israel-United States relationship into a semi-formal grouping, which then invited India, a key partner of all three, to join [7]. The resulting I2U2 "Partnership for the Future" was formed in October 2021, a year after the Accords were signed [7]. The authors describe its focus as the meeting point of capital, technology, innovation and markets [7]. In practice, the formula linked Gulf capital, Israeli technology, Indian scale and American backing. The first I2U2 leaders' meeting took place on 14 July 2022. The participants were Prime Minister Modi, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed and US President Joe Biden [8]. The leaders named six areas for joint investment: water, energy, transportation, space, health and food security [8]. Two projects came out of the summit. First, the UAE announced it would invest USD 2 billion to develop a series of integrated food parks across India, with India providing land and helping farmers join the parks [8]. Second, the group agreed to advance a hybrid renewable energy project in Gujarat with 300 megawatts of wind and solar capacity and a battery storage system [8]. The joint statement said such projects could make India a global hub for alternate supply chains in renewable energy [8]. Both projects place Indian territory and Indian producers at the centre of a grouping that exists only because Israel and the UAE normalised relations.

Trade Routes and Defence Links, 2022 to 2024

The Accords coincided with a sharp expansion of India's economic ties with the Gulf. The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, signed in 2022, was India's first such agreement in the Middle East and North Africa [9]. Bilateral trade with the UAE passed USD 100 billion in financial year 2024-25, according to India's Press Information Bureau [9]. The larger step came at the G20 summit in New Delhi. On 9 September 2023, Saudi Arabia, the European Union, India, the UAE, France, Germany, Italy and the United States signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) [10]. The plan has an eastern corridor from India to the Gulf and a northern corridor from the Gulf to Europe. A railway would move goods between India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and Europe [10]. Signatories also intend to lay electricity and data cables and a pipeline for clean hydrogen along the route [10]. The memorandum sets out political commitments and creates no rights or obligations under international law [10]. Israel did not sign it, although the planned route passes through Israeli territory [10]. A land route across Arab states to an Israeli port would have been politically difficult to plan before normalisation. Defence ties ran alongside trade. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reports that Israel was the world's eighth largest arms exporter in 2020-24, with 3.1 per cent of global exports [11]. India was the largest single buyer of Israeli arms, taking 34 per cent [11]. SIPRI also found that Israeli arms exports to the Middle East rose by 187 per cent between 2015-19 and 2020-24, largely because of deliveries to the UAE and Morocco after normalisation [11].

War, Continuity and a Special Strategic Partnership, October 2023 to July 2026

The Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the war that followed tested the new regional links. India and Israel kept building their partnership through this period. In their February 2026 joint statement, the two governments condemned the 7 October attack, the attack on Indian tourists at Pahalgam on 22 April 2025, and the incident near Red Fort in New Delhi on 10 November 2025 [12]. They also welcomed the Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation signed on 4 November 2025 [12]. Economic agreements advanced during the war. Finance Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Bezalel Smotrich signed a Bilateral Investment Agreement in New Delhi on 8 September 2025, when two-way investment stood at about USD 800 million [13]. The agreement entered into force on 4 July 2026 [14]. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal visited Israel from 20 to 22 November 2025, and the two sides signed the Terms of Reference for a Free Trade Agreement [2]. The first negotiating round took place in New Delhi from 23 to 26 February 2026 [15]. India's Commerce Ministry recorded merchandise trade of about USD 3.62 billion in 2024-25 [15]. The Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv records a peak of USD 10.77 billion, excluding defence, in 2022-23 [2].

Prime Minister Modi made a state visit to Israel on 25 and 26 February 2026 and addressed the Knesset [16]. The two Prime Ministers raised relations to a "Special Strategic Partnership for Peace, Innovation & Prosperity" [12]. They signed 16 agreements, including one to link India's Unified Payments Interface with Israel's payment system, and agreed that up to 50,000 additional Indian workers may go to Israel within five years [12]. They reaffirmed the I2U2 partnership, agreed to explore Israel's role within IMEC, and welcomed US President Donald Trump's plan to end the Gaza conflict [12].

Joint statement post signing the Special Strategic Partnership for Peace, Innovation & Prosperity by PM Narendra Modi and PM Benjamin Netanyahu.

In One Paragraph

The Abraham Accords of August and September 2020 normalised relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. India welcomed them at once, calling Israel and the UAE key strategic partners while keeping its stated support for a two-state solution. Normalisation allowed India to join its Israeli and Gulf partnerships together. This produced the I2U2 group, whose 2022 summit promised USD 2 billion in UAE investment for Indian food parks and a 300-megawatt clean energy project in Gujarat, and the 2023 IMEC plan for a trade route from India to Europe through Israel. India–Israel ties continued to deepen after 7 October 2023. A defence memorandum, an investment treaty in force from July 2026, free trade negotiations and the February 2026 Special Strategic Partnership followed.

Sources

1. Embassy of India, Tel Aviv. "Bilateral Relations." Government of India.https://www.indembassyisrael.gov.in/pages?id=mbk5e&subid=lejRe.
2. Embassy of India, Tel Aviv. "Bilateral Economic Relations." Government of India. Accessed October 5, 2026.https://www.indembassyisrael.gov.in/pages?id=nel5a&subid=7ax9b.
3. Government of the United Arab Emirates and Government of the State of Israel. "Abraham Accords Peace Agreement: Treaty of Peace, Diplomatic Relations and Full Normalization between the United Arab Emirates and the State of Israel." Signed September 15, 2020. US Department of State.https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/UAE_Israel-treaty-signed-FINAL-15-Sept-2020-508.pdf.
4. US Department of State. "The Abraham Accords." Archived page, 2017–2021 administration.https://2017-2021.state.gov/the-abraham-accords/.
5. US Department of State. "The Abraham Accords Declaration." Signed September 15, 2020.https://2021-2025.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Abraham-Accords-signed-FINAL-15-Sept-2020-508-1.pdf.
6. Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. "Statement by MEA's Official Spokesperson on the Full Normalisation of Relations between UAE and Israel during the Virtual Weekly Media Briefing." August 14, 2020. Republished by the Embassy of India, Cairo.https://www.eoicairo.gov.in/section/news/statement-by-mea-s-official-spokesperson-on-the-full-normalisation-of-relations-between-uae-and-israel-during-the-virtual-weekly-media-briefing/.
7. Afterman, Gedaliah, and N. Janardhan. "The Abraham Accords Bring the Middle East and Asia Closer." Arena, no. 12.https://www.eng.arenajournal.org.il/single-post/issue12-afterman-janardhan-middle-east-asia-eng.
8. The White House. "Joint Statement of the Leaders of India, Israel, United Arab Emirates, and the United States (I2U2)." July 14, 2022.https://bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/07/14/joint-statement-of-the-leaders-of-india-israel-united-arab-emirates-and-the-united-states-i2u2.
9. Press Information Bureau, Government of India. "India's Trade Partnerships Powering Global Integration and Growth." 2026.https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2233417&lang=1&reg=3.
10. Governments of Saudi Arabia, India, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Italy, the United States, and the European Union. "Memorandum of Understanding on the Principles of an India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor." September 9, 2023. Archived by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project, University of California, Santa Barbara.https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/memorandum-understanding-the-principles-india-middle-east-europe-economic-corridor.
11. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. "Recent Trends in International Arms Transfers in the Middle East and North Africa." Topical backgrounder, 2025.https://www.sipri.org/commentary/topical-backgrounder/2025/recent-trends-international-arms-transfers-middle-east-and-north-africa.
12. Prime Minister's Office, Government of India. "India-Israel Joint Statement." February 26, 2026.https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/news_updates/india-israel-joint-statement/.
13. All India Radio News. "India, Israel Sign Bilateral Investment Agreement in New Delhi." September 8, 2025.https://www.newsonair.gov.in/india-israel-sign-bilateral-investment-agreement-in-new-delhi.
14. All India Radio News. "Bilateral Investment Agreement between India and Israel Comes into Force Today." July 4, 2026.https://newsonair.gov.in/bilateral-investment-agreement-between-india-and-israel-comes-into-force-today/.
15. Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. "First Round of India-Israel FTA Talks Conclude Successfully in New Delhi." February 26, 2026.https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2233199&reg=3&lang=1.
16. All India Radio News. "PM Modi Holds Talks with His Israeli Counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv." February 25, 2026.https://www.newsonair.gov.in/pm-modi-reaches-tel-aviv-on-two-day-visit-to-israel. ** **