India, Israel decide to step up defence ties

NEW DELHI: India and Israel have decided to further ramp up their ongoing defence cooperation in areas ranging from military trade and counter terrorism to intelligence sharing and joint R&D projects. This came after a joint working group meeting on defence, co-chaired by the director-general of Israeli defence ministry Brigadier-General (retd) Pinchas Buchris and defence secretary Pradeep Kumar, here on Tuesday. The sheer expanse of the Indo-Israeli defence relationship can be gauged from the fact the JWG meeting came shortly after Israeli Defence Forces chief of general staff Lt-General Gabi Ashkenazi visited India. Army General Deepak Kapoor, too, had visited Israel last month. Israel has assured India that different ongoing projects like the Rs 2,606-crore one for a 70-km LR-SAM (long range surface-to-air missile) system for Indian Navy and the Rs 10,075-crore one for a 80-km MR-SAM (medium range) for IAF will be completed as per schedules. As reported earlier, Israel has emerged as the second largest defence supplier to India, notching up military business worth a whopping $9 billion since the 1999 Kargil conflict, next only to Russia. Sorry [ Click here to register ]

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