India, Israel Sign Major Defence Pact

India and Israel on Tuesday inked a defence pact that will facilitate sharing of advanced technologies and promote co-development and co-production of key weapon systems and military hardware, in a major move to further bolster their already robust strategic ties.

- Press Trust of India

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in Tel Aviv following a meeting of the India-Israel Joint Working Group (JWG) on defence cooperation.

The MoU on defence cooperation was signed to provide a “unified vision and policy direction to deepen the already strong defence cooperation between the two countries", the defence ministry said.

The pact also provides for cooperation in the areas of artificial intelligence, cyber security, defence research and innovation and industrial collaboration.

India is a leading buyer of Israel's military hardware, and the latter has been supplying various weapon systems, missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles over the last few years. However, the transactions have largely remained behind the curtains.