Even as boosting overall defence and security ties between India and Israel will be a major focus of the discussions during the two-day visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Israel, Consul General of Israel to Midwest India Yaniv Revach said his country is willing to cooperate with India regarding the Iron Dome and other defence systems.
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Defence cooperation has emerged as a major pillar of the partnership between India and Israel, with Israel supplying several military platforms and weapon systems to India.
India, which is looking at developing an indigenous air defence shield 'Sudarshan Chakra', is learnt to be keen to explore the possibility of incorporating certain elements from the Iron Dome all-weather air defence system that can intercept and destroy missiles and artillery shells.
In an interview with news agency IANS, Revach pointed out that Israel and India have an ongoing, "unique and strong" defence cooperation because of the mutual challenges both countries are facing.
"Now, during this specific visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we plan to expand this agreement to focus on specific topics, for example, manufacturing here in India, defence cooperation, and also cooperation regarding the Iron Dome and other defence systems in Israel that we actually share the technology for with partners here in India," he was quoted as saying.
This is the second visit of Modi to Israel. His first visit was in 2017, marking the first time an Indian prime minister visited the country.
During the visit, Modi and his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu will review the significant progress made in the India-Israel Strategic Partnership, and discuss further opportunities in various areas of cooperation, including science and technology, innovation, defence and security, agriculture, water management, trade and economy, and people-to-people exchanges, the government had stated.