A short history of India-Israel relations

For most of Israel's first four decades the India-Israel relationship was a non-relationship, by Indian choice. Today it is a Special Strategic Partnership, with India as Israel's single largest defence customer and the two prime ministers having held four bilateral summits in eight years. This piece tracks the change in five phases.

Phase 1: the 1947 to 1948 origins

India voted against the United Nations General Assembly partition plan for Palestine (Resolution 181) on 29 November 1947. India was one of thirteen states that opposed, alongside the Arab and Muslim-majority states. The Indian position, set out by Jawaharlal Nehru, framed partition as a problematic external imposition on the Arab population of Palestine and preferred a federal solution.

After Israel declared independence on 14 May 1948, India initially withheld recognition. The decision was contested inside the Indian government and the Congress party, with internal letters showing Nehru, Sardar Patel and others weighing competing considerations: Indian national-movement solidarity with anti-colonial Arab opinion, the position of India's own Muslim population in the immediate aftermath of Partition, and pragmatic estimates of the regional balance.

Phase 2: recognition without relations (1950 to 1991)

India formally recognised Israel on 17 September 1950, two years after independence. Recognition stopped short of full diplomatic relations: Israel was permitted to open a consulate in Bombay (Mumbai) but not an embassy in Delhi. The arrangement persisted for 42 years.

Indian policy during this period rested on three foundations: the Non-Aligned Movement, of which India was a co-founder and where Arab states were influential; Indian support for the Palestinian cause; and Indian energy and labour-flow dependence on the Gulf and the wider Arab world. India consistently voted with the Arab bloc at the United Nations on Israel-related resolutions.

Outside the visible diplomatic picture, a quieter relationship developed. Indian and Israeli intelligence agencies cooperated on selected matters, including, by some accounts, around the 1962 India-China war and the 1965 and 1971 India-Pakistan wars. India also drew on Israeli technical assistance in agriculture from the 1960s onwards through the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, although the public framing was kept minimal.

Phase 3: full relations (29 January 1992)

The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, India's major external partner, removed several of the constraints on a fuller relationship. Indian Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao's government announced the establishment of full diplomatic relations with Israel on 29 January 1992, two days after China had done the same.

The 1992 decision opened embassies in both capitals and unblocked a trade and technology agenda that had been suppressed for four decades. Bilateral trade, which had been negligible, grew through the 1990s into the low single-digit billions of US dollars. The defence relationship, which had operated in the background, became publicly explicit.

Phase 4: the first prime-ministerial visits (2003 to 2017)

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made the first official visit by an Israeli prime minister to India on 8 to 11 September 2003, hosted by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. The visit produced a Delhi Statement on Friendship and Cooperation and substantial defence agreements, including the Phalcon airborne early-warning systems deal that had been under negotiation for years.

Narendra Modi became the first sitting Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel on 4 to 6 July 2017. The Modi visit was notable for what it did not include: by Indian government convention, until then, prime-ministerial visits to Israel had been paired with visits to the Palestinian Authority. The 2017 visit was not. The decision marked a structural change in Indian diplomatic practice: Israel was now treated as a relationship in its own right rather than a balanced item against Palestine.

The 2017 visit was reciprocated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to India on 14 to 19 January 2018, which produced a series of agreements covering cybersecurity, oil and gas, civil aviation, agriculture and homoeopathy.

Phase 5: the Special Strategic Partnership (2025 to present)

The bilateral relationship was elevated to a Special Strategic Partnership during Prime Minister Modi's second official visit to Israel on 25 to 26 February 2026. The framing was anchored on a Memorandum of Understanding on defence cooperation signed at the Joint Working Group meeting on 4 November 2025, which committed both sides to a roadmap based on co-development and co-production of Israeli defence systems in India.

The 2026 visit produced an expected USD 8 to 10 billion in defence-related agreements. Major items included acquisitions and co-production arrangements covering the Iron Dome and David's Sling systems, the SPICE 1000 guidance kit, Rampage air-to-ground missiles, and the Ice Breaker naval cruise missile, with industrial partnerships extended through Bharat Dynamics, Centum Electronics, and existing joint ventures (Rafael with the Kalyani Group; IAI with Hindustan Aeronautics, Bharat Electronics and Larsen & Toubro).

The Special Strategic Partnership coexists with India's continued public support for a two-state outcome in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. New Delhi has emphasised, including during the 2023 to 2025 Gaza war, that the upgrade of the India-Israel relationship is not a position on that conflict.

In one paragraph

India voted against the 1947 UN Partition Plan, recognised Israel in 1950, and waited 42 years to establish full diplomatic relations on 29 January 1992. The relationship has moved quickly since: Sharon visited India in 2003 (first Israeli PM), Modi visited Israel in 2017 (first sitting Indian PM), Netanyahu visited India in 2018, and the relationship was elevated to a Special Strategic Partnership during Modi's second Israel visit in February 2026, framed around a November 2025 defence-cooperation MoU and approximately USD 8 to 10 billion of defence agreements. India's position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which remains supportive of a two-state outcome, has been kept analytically separate from the India-Israel bilateral.

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Sources

[1]: "India's vote on UN Resolution 181, 29 November 1947." UN General Assembly records and Indian Ministry of External Affairs archives. https://www.un.org/

[2]: "India-Israel relations: a chronological survey." Indian Ministry of External Affairs Country Briefs. https://www.mea.gov.in/

[3]: "India and Israel: 1950 to 1992." Jewish Virtual Library / Indian academic histories of the relationship. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/

[4]: Press Information Bureau of India, India-Israel diplomatic relations established (January 1992). https://pib.gov.in/

[5]: Visit of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to India, September 2003. Indian Ministry of External Affairs. https://www.mea.gov.in/

[6]: Visit of Prime Minister to Israel (July 4-6, 2017), Indian Ministry of External Affairs. https://www.mea.gov.in/press-releases.htm?dtl%2F28566%2FVisit_of_Prime_Minister_to_Israel_July_46_2017=

[7]: "Modi's 2017 Israel visit: a structural change in Indian policy." Observer Research Foundation. https://www.orfonline.org/

[8]: "India-Israel Special Strategic Partnership 2026: Key Agreements." SPM IAS Academy summary. https://spmiasacademy.com/currentaffairs/india-israel-special-strategic-partnership/

[9]: "India, Israel sign MoU to boost defence cooperation and technology sharing." DD News (November 2025). https://ddnews.gov.in/en/india-israel-sign-mou-to-boost-defence-cooperation-and-technology-sharing/

[10]: "India and Israel pledge to boost cooperation on trade, defence." Al Jazeera (February 2026). https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/2/26/india-and-israel-pledge-to-boost-cooperation-on-trade-defence

[11]: "Israel-India defense boost: Major deals mark a turning point in strategic relations." Jerusalem Post (February 2026). https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-887915

[12]: India's positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Indian Ministry of External Affairs statements 2023-25. https://www.mea.gov.in/