From 2006 To 2026: How PM Modi’s Israel Visits Shaped A Strategic Partnership

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Israel for a two-day State Visit, marking a significant geopolitical moment. He will conduct wide-ranging discussions with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and address the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset. This address will be the first by any Indian Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Netanyahu personally received Prime Minister Modi at Tel Aviv airport, replicating the gesture from July 2017.

Packed Schedule of Diplomatic and Symbolic Engagements

Over two days, the leaders will participate in multiple engagements. These include bilateral talks, a private dinner, a visit to the Holocaust museum, and an interaction with the Indian diaspora. Observers have described the visit as historic.

The 2017 tour also carried historic weight. That year marked the first standalone bilateral visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Israel.

Prime Minister Netanyahu accompanied Prime Minister Modi throughout much of the programme, signalling exceptional diplomatic warmth.

Prime Minister Modi’s association with Israel predates his premiership. In May 2006, as Chief Minister of Gujarat, he led a delegation to Agritech 2006, Israel’s premier agricultural technology exhibition.

The delegation included other chief ministers and senior officials. They examined innovations in irrigation and water conservation.

According to the Modi Archive, the then Chief Minister presented Gujarat’s agricultural roadmap at the Israel-India Business Forum under the slogan ‘Per Drop More Crop’.

The phrase later evolved into the guiding motto of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana.

In 2017, agriculture again shaped the narrative. The first stop during that visit was a flower farm.

Israel’s leading flower genetics company unveiled a newly bred white chrysanthemum named ‘MODI’.

Both nations signed a Three-Year Work Programme in Agriculture, institutionalising cooperation initiated in 2006.

The Netafim partnership matured into a formal government-to-government framework.

During his diaspora address in Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Modi emphasised that Israeli collaboration could power India’s second green revolution.

A defining image from that tour showed both leaders witnessing a demonstration of mobile water desalination technology.

In 2026, Prime Minister Modi returns with agriculture, water management and food security once again central to expanding strategic ties.