IT'S 30 YEARS OF ISRAEL-INDIA DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS: AMBASSADOR NAOR GILON

In the recent years the relationship between India and Israel has gone from a position of strength to strength.

- MURTAZA ALI KHAN

India and Israel are strategic partners. India announced its recognition of Israel on September 17, 1950. In the recent years the relationship between India and Israel has gone from a position of strength to strength. Here it important to mention Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the Indian War Cemetery in Haifa, Israel back in July, 2017. As a symbolic gesture of friendship with Israel, the iconic Teen Murti Chowk was renamed as Teen Murti - Haifa Chowk during the visit of the former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back in January, 2018. In August 2020, India and Israel signed a Cultural Exchange Programme (for 2020-23) in August 2020 to facilitate bilateral cultural exchanges spanning all fields of art and culture, including youth exchanges.

"We have quite an extensive cultural exchange between our two countries. Now, the thing about all cultural exchanges is that you want to bring people together. But, we had been greatly restricted by the pandemic over the last couple of years. Now, we are getting into the phase of reenergizing the Cultural Exchange Programme and putting Oxygen into it," explains Naor Gilon, Ambassador of Israel to India.